The metaverse is poised to become a massive commercial market valued at up to $900 billion by 2030, according to a new report from strategy firm Bain & Company.
However, the study indicates the nascent platform remains in its formative “seed stage” and could take another five to 10 years to achieve widespread adoption and usage at scale.
The report, titled Taking the Hyperbole Out of the Metaverse, analysed both the blockbuster revenue potential as well as challenges that lie ahead for the metaverse. Far from dismissing the opportunity, Bain partners advocate engagement now during ground floor development when technologies are refining to “get ahead and eventually scale.”
To better understand the state of play and roadmap, Bain delved into five competitive metaverse battlegrounds comprising over 90 percent of their forecasted market size breakdown for 2030. These included virtual experiences ($585 billion), content creation tools ($45 billion), app stores and operating systems ($90 billion), hardware devices ($90 billion), and computing infrastructure ($90 billion).
While gaming currently leads the consumer metaverse, fitness and entertainment show strong promise. Likewise, innovative business uses in collaboration, training and marketing are emerging on the enterprise front. Proper nurturing in the seed stage positions players for outsized gains when the market matures.
“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.”
Hardware posed one area requiring “significant technological barriers” to be overcome for standalone wearables enabling fully immersive experiences. The report advocated cross-device functionality as a necessity for broad adoption until next-gen gear arises. This sentiment underscores Bain’s core finding that the virtual world remains in fledgling form.
The metaverse will always be plural
The report also challenges assumptions of a singular, unified digital universe platform.
In light of the growing trend toward more immersive and collaborative consumer and enterprise applications, Bain’s analysis suggests that the likelihood of a unified metaverse platform is minimal.
Rather, we can expect existing platforms with substantial user populations to enhance their immersive and engaging features, while smaller metaverse-inspired environments will strive to expand their user communities.
These virtual realms are anticipated to persist as separate entities, as private corporations aim to derive value from the underlying data sets in order to recover their investments.
“Today, a mix of metaverse strategies exist, from companies with a vertically integrated approach that spans multiple segments of the metaverse technology stack to those with a horizontal strategy that focuses on a single layer of the stack,” said Moncef Maghrebi, Partner at Bain & Company Middle East.
“It remains to be seen which will prove to be most effective as the market develops and the shape of the ecosystem (vertical vs. horizontal) is likely to evolve over time.”
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