The metaverse interest is there but where’s the product?

Even as new research shows millennials and Gen Z consumers across APAC are enthusiastic about the metaverse and are receptive to brands operating there, the tech companies that have driven that interest are now focused elsewhere. 

The research

A Yahoo study, reported by Media Week, covered 15,000 respondents across Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. It found: 

• 66% of APAC and 59% of Australian millennials and Gen Z are looking forward to the metaverse. 
• If a brand applies the metaverse in its advertising or marketing, 57% would like to know more about it, 54% would pay more attention to it, and 52% would have a more positive image of it.

But what is the metaverse? 

“There has been a lot of hype about the potential of the metaverse, but very little is known about what consumers expect,” notes Zoe Cocker, director of innovation and creative studio at Yahoo. 

And the same could be said for brands. Writing in The Media Leader, OMG’s Phil Rowley recently observed that “Most brands’ excitement about the metaverse is based on a persistent but frustratingly narrow view of its potential – with almost all conversation limited to exploiting virtual real estate in high-profile games.” 

The tech pivot

A lot of money has been poured into the notion of the metaverse, not least by Meta. But it’s also clear from the same company’s February earnings call that its priorities now lie with AI, which is powering both its discovery engine and its ads business. That order of preference appears to be replicated across the sector, with Google, Alibaba, Baidu et al scrambling to jump on the ChatGPT bandwagon. 

What it means

What the big tech companies end up delivering in respect of the metaverse may fall well short of the interest and expectation that has been generated. Buying branded clothing for Roblox avatars is a novelty that has limited long-term appeal. 

Rowley, meanwhile, points to a different direction that may ultimately be more useful. While the current vision of the metaverse is largely about imaginary worlds and gaming, he envisages the ‘Scaniverse’ making perfect 3D copies of objects and assets – “effectively ‘virtualising’ the real” – and enabling brands to “deliver functionality, utility, and product literacy to virtual environments”.

Sourced from Media Week, The Media Leader, WARC