In my recent rundown of the most memorable moments from Cloud Wars Expo 2022 — it was tough to whittle them down — I picked up on the exceptional panel discussion surrounding Metaverse Business Models of the Future. The conclusion: The Metaverse is moving so fast that it’s almost impossible to predict what a successful business model may look like five years down the line.
However, there are ways that businesses are already capitalizing on the benefits and opportunities provided by Metaverse technologies. And, slowly, the bare bones of a business model are coming together.
In this article, I want to highlight some of the most impressive and essential Metaverse forays and focus on some companies leading the charge to develop a viable business model.
3 Organizations With Metaverse Business Model Strategies
Although many organizations are making waves in the Metaverse, I want to focus on three in particular because they represent several very different approaches to constructing a Metaverse business strategy. You’ll soon notice that I’ve stayed away from organizations that have simply bought land and advertised on one of the big four Metaverse platforms.
Although this is a viable way of entering the Metaverse, this doesn’t, in my humble opinion, represent a long-term strategy for a successful complete business enterprise operating in this new virtual world.
Meta
Ok, so it might seem obvious to start with Meta, but in terms of commitment, the social media giant has gone all in.
Branding: Perhaps a name change isn’t viable for every organization, but incorporating the Metaverse into branding could be. For example, you could develop a Metverse-focused branch of your organization, something like Acceleration Economy VR.
Products: Meta acquired the VR headset company Oculus in 2014. However, today, the company has ramped up the development of the existing products and rebranded them under the Meta umbrella.
Beyond this, Meta has launched other physical products, such as Meta Portal, and works with Rayban to stock its Stories smartglasses in Meta’s physical product store.
Platforms: Meta’s Horizon Worlds is the company’s attempt at building a Metaverse from scratch. Although adoption is relatively low compared to established platforms, the initiative represents a solid pillar of the company’s Metaverse business strategy.
NVIDIA
This established technology company invests heavily in the Metaverse and reimagines use cases for its existing offerings.
Hardware: Already a market leader in high-performance GPUs, NVIDIA has begun to position itself as a serious contender for some of the hardware components that will power Metaverse visualization technologies. Then there are the data centers.
NVIDIA already supplies data centers to Meta, so that collaborative partnership will likely evolve. Crucially, NVIDIAs data centers are robust enough to handle AI computing at scale and could support a substantial degree of this critical infrastructure.
Developer tools: In 2021, NVIDIA launched NVIDIA Omniverse. Designers and developers use this 3D design studio and virtual world simulator to create Metaverse-ready virtual assets. Providing development tools like this is an exciting way for an organization to enter the Metaverse space.
Microsoft
Unsurprisingly, Microsoft has committed many resources to Metaverse innovations, many of which surround communication.
Immersive comms: Microsoft’s Teams app has had a Metaverse upgrade. The company’s leading digital communication portal now includes avatars and drop-in spaces for virtual meetings.
Although the Team’s virtual world lacks luster, Microsoft is capitalizing on what will become a critical use case for the Metaverse: virtual workspaces.
Industrial Metaverse: A sub-genre on its own, the industrial Metaverse incorporates ideas, predominantly focused on the process of digital twinning, about overcoming manufacturing and engineering hurdles through virtualization.
Microsoft has already begun to tackle some of these points with its 3D Scenes Studio. This is a space where users can develop digital twins — Azure Digital Twins, to be exact — powered by the cloud.
Final Thoughts on the Metaverse Business Model Session
As I mentioned, this is simply scratching the surface of what is possible. And, as was discussed in the Cloud Wars panel session, we don’t know what the future will hold. However, the innovations the three companies above have already revealed are a promising step forward.
If you missed this event or missed certain sessions, then register now for the on-demand pass on the Cloud Wars Expo website. Just click the “On-Demand Pass” button and, starting July 20th, you will be able to experience Cloud Wars Expo for yourself.
And the Cloud Wars Expo experience and content don’t stop here — all of this is your PATH Forward from Cloud Wars Expo to unlock the Purpose, Analysis, Talent, and Hyperfocus needed to optimize your digital future.
