Why Is The Metaverse Likely To Be The Next Biggest Opportunity For Businesses?

Since Meta released its vision for the Metaverse, I've had many conversations with friends and colleagues about what this would look like. What people often ask is, what new opportunities will the Metaverse bring to enterprises? My answer is that the Metaverse will bring huge and exciting business opportunities.

(Liang Youbei, President of Meta Greater China)

When I joined Meta 11 years ago, it was at the beginning of a major shift in the migration of applications from PC to mobile. At that time, few of us could have imagined that digital transformation that originally took ten years could be achieved in just one year. Of course, the epidemic has led to changes in consumption habits in recent years, accelerating the entire digitalization process.

In the past two years, the hybrid model of combining online and offline has penetrated into all areas of people's lives, from remote working and collaboration in teams, to online instant messaging, to online shopping for various daily necessities. Next, Metaverse will take over the mobile Internet and open a new chapter in digitalization. This is a grand ecosystem that cannot be achieved by one company, so for every company, this will be the biggest opportunity we have encountered since the birth of the Internet.

The future is promising and the scene is beginning to appear

From creation to popularization, new technologies often start with consumer adoption, followed by a domino effect, eventually giving rise to new business models and application scenarios. At Meta, we see this happen time and time again.

Take corporate communications as an example. When we get used to instant messaging with friends, we begin to expect companies to provide the same convenience. Affected by the epidemic, various places have introduced social control measures, making the need for convenient and timely information communication with enterprises increasingly important. As far as we know, there are many flexible small businesses whose entire business is implemented through instant messaging software.

Our platform and technology are also helping customers from large and small businesses conveniently experience products before buying. Current augmented reality (AR) applications, including Spark AR, are good examples. We have already seen companies using AR technology to help users virtually "place" furniture products they are interested in in their homes to see if they match their home environment, or using AR to let people try on makeup directly in the company's Facebook store or Try on glasses.

In areas other than sales, we have also seen preliminary scenes of Metaverse applications, including new virtual meeting experiences brought by Horizon Workrooms, virtual games created around the world, and various virtual spaces established in the technology industry. inside.

Build a "bridge" to the metaverse

For a period of time, people mainly obtained the metaverse experience through 2D applications. Currently, Meta is focusing on building "bridges" to seamlessly connect 2D applications into a more immersive virtual 3D metaverse. In the long run, there will be many such applications suitable for commercial use, and they are very exciting.

Looking at it, how much room for innovation will this bring to companies?

Businesses can turn their Facebook or Instagram stores into virtual stores within the Metaverse, where people can experience their products and brands just like they would in a physical store. For new product series released offline, companies can design some limited edition digital products during the promotion process, so that some die-hard fans can convey their love for the brand through the Metaverse.

If car dealers can provide virtual test drive services in the metaverse, they may be able to open up more new customer groups. Various organizations can work with content creators to host virtual online events in the Metaverse to enhance interaction between consumers and brands.

While many aspects of the Metaverse may take a decade to take shape, companies can act now to engage with customers using the technology that will enable it. Those companies that can truly unleash the creativity of Meta's platform will not only improve customer experience, but will also be in a very advantageous position in the future world of the Metaverse.

Meta’s vision is that the Metaverse can cover 1 billion people in the next ten years. To achieve this goal of enabling people to have fully immersive experiences in new virtual spaces, we need to work with experts from industry and academia. I believe that by working with industry, not only can Meta itself reap the economic and social benefits of a digitally connected world by taking the right steps, but that together we can create an exciting new world that benefits everyone.