The international consulting firm McKinsey & Company has elaborated the report 'Value Creation in the Metaverse', which presents the potential of this new discipline in which the physical and digital worlds converge, and analyzes the main prospects for the future.

The study reveals that the value of the metaverse could reach $5 trillion by 2030 due to the potential benefits that more and more companies from all sectors see from this universe in the future.

E-commerce will be the leading source of metaverse revenue, accounting for approximately 50% of the total value by 2030 ($2.6 trillion) ahead of e-learning ($270 billion), advertising ($206 billion), and gaming ($125 billion).

On the other hand, the report reflects that 95% of business leaders foresee that the metaverse will have a positive impact on their sectors in a period of between 5 and 10 years, and 31% assure that the metaverse will radically change the way of understanding and developing work activities.

Thus, according to McKinsey senior partner Eric Hazan, the metaverse represents a "strategic inflection point for companies" and a "significant opportunity to influence the way we live, connect, learn, innovate and collaborate."

"Our ambition is to help business leaders better understand their power and potential, identify strategic imperatives and act as a force for their evolution," Hazan said.

The research, which draws information from a survey of more than 3,400 consumers, executives and subject matter experts in several countries, was conducted with the idea of analyzing the potential of the metaverse as a new discipline in which the physical and digital worlds converge, as well as its main prospects for the future.

A COMMITMENT TO THE FUTURE

Total investment in the first months of 2022 has exceeded $120 billion, leaving behind the $57 billion that was allocated to this alternative reality throughout last year, a figure that, according to McKinsey, would indicate that this new convergence between the physical and digital world has become "one of the big bets for the future" due to the technological boom and the change of habits on the part of consumers towards increasingly digital aspects.

On the consumer side, the study reveals that of the more than 3 billion people worldwide who already have access to their different versions of the metaverse, 59% prefer at least one experience in the metaverse over its physical alternative. In this sense, McKinsey & Company partner Emilio Capela believes it is possible that the metaverse will have "a huge impact" on our business and personal lives in the same way that the Internet did, emphasizing the "transformative" element of this parallel reality that "has placed us on the cusp of the next wave of digital disruption".

Along these lines, Capela explained that, although the idea of connecting virtually has been decades in the making, "now it is increasingly real," which means that real people are using it and spending real money, and that companies are betting big. However, he pointed out that, while it is true that the advent of the Internet led to the disappearance of dozens of companies, the concept evolved "faster and faster", giving rise to the reality we know today.

A LONG-TERM STRATEGY AS A GUARANTEE OF ADAPTATION

According to McKinsey, the metaverse has provided companies from all sectors with the opportunity to join digitalization through an "innovative concept" that takes advantage of virtual and immersive reality, among others, to create a new digital ecosystem.
Thus, the consulting firm has stressed that to ensure that the adaptation of these companies is successful, they must develop a long-term strategy, able to identify the opportunities and risks of this new alternative reality, as well as decide their positioning in the adoption curve of the metaverse based on their customers and define "clearly" where and how to connect, establishing what new experiences will be adapted to the virtual world.