By Raghavan Subramanian
Over the years, India’s television watching audience has shifted allegiance to smart TVs and online content from conventional TVs. Indian viewers are spending an average of 7+ hours daily on screens according to studies. The OTT market too is growing rapidly and is expected to hit 224 million subscribers by 2026. This growth is driven not just by Gen Z and millennial viewers but also by Gen X.
These trends suggest that Indian viewers are ready for content that engages their attention at more deeply personal and interactive levels. Ergo, the metaverse, which promises an exciting ocean of experiences to dip into. In fact, by 2026, 25% of people will devote at least an hour every day in the metaverse for various activities, predicts Gartner.
Businesses across industries are collaborating and investing significantly to create a metaverse ecosystem, where people and organisations can interact, work, socialise, entertain, and transact with each other. It could be about creating a completely fresh experience or shifting an existing one. We are seeing boutique and private metaverses that could showcase products, launch movies, host a digital twin, and more. For instance, Nike launched Nikeland with Roblox where users are invited to games and encouraged to try Nike’s digital sneakers on their avatars.
Not surprisingly, the global metaverse market is expected to grow remarkably in the next few years and reach $758.6 billion by 2026.
The building blocks of metaverse and the business opportunity
Tech players of all kinds are trying to find a toehold in this exciting new space as they explore innovative models and applications for workforce collaboration, product design and development, manufacturing, logistics, sales and marketing, and retail.
The metaverse is like a seven-layered cake with infrastructure forming the base. Spatial computing or 3D engines help create the model of the experience required. The constitution of the metaverse determines who dictates the rules of engagement – whether there is a central body like Facebook or a decentralised approach like Decentraland where residents vote for policies. Next, the creator economy provides visitors with software development kits to create the desired apps themselves. The discovery layer helps users find new experiences on offer by searching the play store or community-driven content. Finally, the experience layer represents what the user actually experiences based on their preferences and wants. The human interface is powered up by gadgets, hardware, and technologies. VR headsets, smart glasses, and other smart wearables can close the gap between human and machine.
Taking a rollercoaster ride in a VR set-up can be a fantastic yet thrilling experience that delivers all the real-world sensations of emotions. Yet, the user knows they’re safe in a physical sense. That, in a nutshell, is the metaverse experience.
However, the uptake in this space has been quite slow and depends on people actually buying these gadgets. Otherwise, these experiences will be confined to a smart TV screen, phone app or desktop.
The promise of metaverse
Adoption must happen organically and depends on hardware devices finding greater user buy-in that will lead to more brands feeling enthused about investing in these experiences. Game creators and app makers can then create apps that are true metaverse experiences.
Recently, Sony’s Mocopi introduced sensor-based, motion tracking in wearables to help virtual YouTubers and metaverse users get comfortable and express themselves better in their virtual skins. For professional animators too, this can dramatically speed up their time to capture realistic movements in the virtual realm. Armed with such technologies, video creation possibilities will truly become limitless and encourage more to own these kinds of wearables.
Generative AI gives additional arsenal for metaverse to be even more compelling. For instance, Fortune collaborated with Fluid AI to create a “Warren Buffet” avatar, which could answer user queries thanks to extensive training on text/audio/video archives of his writings and interviews.
The 1997 movie ‘Contact’ has a scene where its scientist protagonist meets her long-dead father on her space travels and realises that while it closely resembles her father, it is not actually him. His likeness is reconstructed entirely from her brain. This scene seems almost prophetic because it is possible, we will soon have the technology to interact with characters that are in our imagination or memory.
Setting up for metaverse success
While many companies have recognised its great possibilities, few understand its ideal role or the right way to create metaverse projects for their brand of business. Is it a space to wait and watch or make a gentle foray into or reimagine existing experiences or worry about it disrupting their business model and so on? The right way depends on the nature of business, customers, competitors, and ecosystem.
Sceptics see it as something only appealing to younger generations. But it won’t be long before this influential demographic shifts to the metaverse and the rest need to follow to be heard and seen in the future.
Many may launch a metaverse experience that attracts people the first time for its gimmicky value and surprise factor. Visitors may not go back unless it offers authentic performances that engage a person’s interests and attention and have a repeat value. A makeshift, tick-in-the-box approach will not endure.
While the metaverse is a conduit for showing great content, companies must introspect on: why should my viewer visit my metaverse for the second time or even the third time? Designing the right experience is paramount.
(The author is Raghavan Subramanian, Associate Vice President, Head, Infosys Tennis Platform, Infosys, and the views expressed in this article are his own)
