By 2030, value of metaverse could reach $5 trillion

McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting company, in its recent report named, “Road to change value creation in the metaverse” which was launched in June 2022, revealed that the value of the metaverse could reach $5 trillion by 2030. Adding to this, the report further noted that Global Google searches for “metaverse” skyrocketed by 7,200 percent last year, and metaverse online gaming platform Roblox reportedly hit over 55 million daily active users in February 2022.

“Meta committed more than $10 billion to its Reality Labs division, which makes metaverse-related hardware such as VR goggles. And Microsoft said its planned $69 billion acquisition of gaming company Activision Blizzard would provide building blocks for the metaverse,” said the report.

Supporting their $5 trillion estimation, the report said that various factors increase the economic value of the metaverse exponentially, as its appeal spans genders, geographies, and generations; so they believe that consumers are ready to spend on digital assets (and are doing so already); they are open to adopting new technologies.

“Consumer behaviour has largely shifted toward adopting digital personas, yet many brands have yet to provide a solution. This opens up a whole new revenue model for brands who can supply digital assets like clothing, for example,” says Irene-Marie Seelig, co-founder, and CEO of AnamXR.

Interestingly, the metaverse report cited that two-thirds of consumers who have experienced the metaverse found that 80 percent appreciate shared virtual experiences with friends and family, 63 percent prefer virtual work meetings, and 59 percent enjoy virtual education sessions more than in-person ones. Additionally, they also found that 62 percent of those using the metaverse had engaged in one or more branded virtual experiences, indicating the opportunity for companies to pursue those efforts.

But What About Crime?

With the rapid increase in the metaverse’s popularity, it has also incorporated crimes with it. According to Elliptic research, the Metaverse is becoming a more alluring liquidity venue for criminals trying to launder money. That said, money laundering is not restricted to just the Metaverse. Money laundering is one of the most notable crimes in the crypto market, and it has spiked nearly 30 percent between 2020 and 2021, according to a 2022 crypto crime report by Blockchain data firm, Chainalysis.

‘Web3, by definition, succeeds Web 2.0. The metaverse, by definition, succeeds our current computing and networking paradigm. The fact that they both succeed in what we experience as the internet today naturally intertwines the two,” says Matthew Ball, managing partner of EpyllionCo and McKinsey knowledge partner.

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