Despite reports that "metaverse-hype" is dying down, the metaverse could reach up to $900 billion dollars by 2030—though it may remain in the seed stage for at least another five to 10 years, a research report said on Thursday.
According to the report released by Bain & Company, the metaverse poses real and growing economic opportunities for businesses. ompanies that engage in the metaverse’s early stages of development, known as the “seed stage," over the next five to 10 years, are more likely to become the market winners.
"As the metaverse quickly evolves, we’ve already seen these types of technologies take hold within different industries,” said Chris Johnson, a partner in Bain’s Technology practice.
"A good example of this is immersive gaming platforms, which are already boasting hundreds of millions of monthly active users. And while it’s not immediately clear how the metaverse landscape will shift, our research shows there are five competitive battlegrounds that executives should be considering if they wish to get ahead and eventually scale. This is an ongoing journey toward more immersive and collaborative experiences, enabled by rapid improvements in the underlying technology," Johnson said.
Furthermore, the report said that it is unlikely that the metaverse will emerge as one singular platform.
"Instead, platforms with large user bases today may take steps to become increasingly immersive and engaging, while smaller, metaverse-like environments will try to attract bigger user bases. These virtual worlds are likely to remain independent silos as private companies seek to recoup their investments by leveraging the value of the underlying data sets," it revealed.
Bain's report identified five strategic areas of competition crucial for market dominance in the metaverse, which include, Virtual experiences— predicted to be about 65 percent of metaverse projected market size in 2030; Content-creation tools — about 5 percent of metaverse market size in 2030; App stores and operating systems — about 10 percent of metaverse market size in 2030; Devices — about 10 percent of metaverse market size in 2030; Computing and infrastructure — about 10 percent of metaverse market size in 2030.
