Colombia. Although it is not a new concept and there is still a long way to go, the "Metaverse" today is perceived as the future of the Internet, which is why technological giants such as Facebook, Google or Apple are competing to be number one in this race to dominate the metaverse.
Eva Martín, CEO of Tiendeo, a company specialized in the digitalization of the retail sector, begins the debate with the following question: Are we facing a temporary phenomenon or a new world that opens the doors to a powerful business model? As a preamble, it invites us to consider what idea we have of the metaverse, to enter this world to know how people's lives are changing, the opportunities it offers to retailers and brands and retailers to connect with the consumer.
A new universe in development
The Metaverse is a virtual environment to which we will connect through devices such as glasses or helmets and virtual reality and augmented reality applications that promises an experience so immersive that it will make us feel that we are really inside it, interacting with other people and objects.
In this kind of alternative world everything will be possible through an avatar: buy goods and services, attend concerts, travel, play and even work. The amazing thing about this universe is that you can teleport from one experience to another without leaving your room. With the development of the metaverse, it is sought to extend the real world to the virtual world, making the most everyday actions become a spectacle.
What makes the metaverse so seductive?
The great potential that this technology has as a business model is what has led several companies to create their own "omniverses". To achieve success, they must consider that the user enters the metaverse to escape from the real world, because it offers him the seductive possibility of building his own personality, his own reality: showing himself as he "feels" that he really is taking the user experience to another level. Brands have seen in the metaverse the opportunity to create that aspirational and self-expression reality that, many times, the user is not able to develop or transfer to their real and physical life.
This allows a new form of interaction between consumers and brands through the D2A (direct-to-avatar) model in which we will no longer buy clothes for ourselves, but for our representation in the metaverse. So the challenge that companies will have will be that people carry out most of their activities in this digital universe, just as we do in the physical world, giving rise to virtual markets that currently already move large sums of money.
Something not so far-fetched in an era in which the human being lives hooked on technology, either professionally, socially or both and it is speculated that in 2030 we will spend more time in the metaverse than in "real life". Thus, the desire to dominate the new virtual spaces suggests the eagerness to mold and build the way people interact both in real life and in the Metaverse.
The Metaverse to the conquest of Colombia
The opportunities offered by the Metaverse are endless, especially in the field of commerce, so the technology company Wildbytes estimates that in the next 5 years 70% of the big brands will have a presence in the metaverse. By 2023 some companies are already promising to launch a new product while others are already looking at the possibility of creating shopping malls, boutiques and virtual stores where avatars will be able to buy NFT products and pay in cryptocurrencies.
The great impulse that these new technologies have had will promote radical changes in the business world. Several companies are currently transforming the way they design and think about their services through digitized processes. An example of this are Inn Solutions, developer of 3D virtual reality software and Offcorss, a children's clothing company in Colombia, who joined forces to be the first Colombian company to show their designs in the Metaverse for the new generation of consumers.
Offcorss aims to link video game services to retail, allowing you to interact with different avatars, play, ask questions related to garments and measure clothes. According to this foray into the market, there are other brands that have also opened space in the metaverse. For example, Nike has developed Nikeland, a section where you play by participating in different competitions and use the brand's new designs, while H&M carried out the launch of its first virtual collection through a platform that allowed them to market virtual designs.
For now, according to the Association of Virtual and Augmented Reality in Colombia, the challenge is to define the form of payment, since a single system that is used by users should be unified. It should be noted that the country has around ten virtual wallets available to around 60 million mobile devices, according to Hootsuite.
