Value creation in the metaverse webinar

The metaverse revolution is coming soon, and companies must prepare today to seize the opportunities of tomorrow.

The metaverse is a virtual world that’s being defined and developed as you’re reading this.

In essence, the metaverse will seamlessly combine our digital and physical lives. It will offer immersive experiences, real-time interactivity, and user agency. Soon to be useful for human activities well beyond gaming, it will operate across platforms and devices, with thousands of people interacting simultaneously.

During a McKinsey Live webinar, senior partners Eric Hazan and Jennifer Schmidt discussed the potential of a fully realized metaverse. According to recent McKinsey research, most consumers and CEOs are excited about the rapidly developing metaverse, which ultimately could change the way we work, play, connect, and engage.

Between venture capital, private equity, and M&A approximately $120 billion has been invested within the first five months of 2022, more than double the amount in all of 2021. By 2030, the value of the metaverse could be as much as $5 trillion.

We’re only at the beginning of the metaverse, and there remain many questions to be answered and prerequisites to be met, but companies need to take steps now to prepare for the coming explosion of innovation and opportunities the metaverse will yield:

1. Develop a strategy. Define your metaverse goals and determine the role your business aims to play.
2. Test, learn, and adopt. Select, prioritize, and focus on the use cases that will have the most impact, monitor near-term results and refine the long-term potential, and learn all you can about users.
3. Prepare to scale. Identify and start scaling capabilities and embed the metaverse in your business strategy and operating model.

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For more on this topic, see the interactive research report “Value creation in the metaverse” and the article “Probing reality and myth in the metaverse” on McKinsey.com.