Back to the metaverse in 2022: Hype, investments and marketing movements

This year 2022 can be considered a fruitful year for investments in the metaverse, although doubts about the viability of the virtual world still cross the minds of some stakeholders. Last year, companies and venture capitalists pooled $57 billion in stakes, but that amount has since been surpassed by the $120 billion recorded this year, according to a McKinsey report. Despite the tragic release of Meta in the third quarter of 2022, computational reality remains a mystery that many companies want to unravel and market.

In an always-on environment where events happen in real time, Gartner expects 25% of people to be in the digital space for at least an hour a day by 2026. The metaverse symbolizes a new way for individuals and businesses to interact with technology. Its use cases range from the usual culprits like blockchain and gaming, to patient rehabilitation, digital fashion and much more. Some of the popular industry leaders actively involved in unlocking the metaverse's seemingly limitless potential include Twitter, Microsoft, and Spotify.

Although Web3 awareness has reached an all-time high and is translating into some serious competition, Asaf Fybish, CEO and co-founder of GuerillaBuzz, a Web3 marketing agency, thinks there's still a lot to do in the coming months. years. Although Fybish admits that budgeting and strategy for short-term Metaverse goals has recently changed due to the "bear market," he says, "Marketing in the Metaverse will become an increasingly high priority over the next two to next four years".

On top of that, Fybish told VentureBeat that "more [marketing] dollars will go into the metaverse in the coming years as big brands continue to shift their marketing spend to the emerging space of the metaverse."

While allocating a significant portion of an organization's marketing budget to metaverse efforts may seem frivolous, the ability to develop and customize new worlds for customers is a hill many are willing to die on.< /p>

It's not uncommon for new ideas to be fiercely contested, and that's largely the case for the Metaverse in 2022. The flamboyant buzz surrounding the Metaverse seems to have divided many experts. Mark Zuckerberg's 2021 explainer described it as the next step in technology where "you're in the experience, not just looking at it." However, respondents to a 2022 PEW Research study consider the metaverse to be the culture of marketing hype.

For Steve Wilson, one of the survey participants and founder of Lockstep Consulting, the metaverse "is not well enough defined for us to predict that a fully immersive experience will be more important by 2040 ". Wilson thinks it should be allowed to evolve naturally, noting that "digital renderings of reality may generate excitement, but then the risk of adoption is not sufficiently considered".

Meanwhile, differing opinions about what the Metaverse is and should be have not stopped its growth. Statista's results in 2021 revealed market revenue of $38.85 billion and estimated that figure to rise to $47.48 billion. In 2030, the segment is expected to be worth at least $678.8 billion.

Just as there are different opinions about the capabilities of the Metaverse, industry players have also unveiled varying goals. And while opting to create virtual environments or enabling team collaboration using a digital community are two interesting but distinct paths, what should a brand expect from the virtual world? 'next year ?

Forest