
The cover of Time Magazine last week featured a cover story on the metaverse. And its subhead should make us all sit up and take notice: The Next Digital Era Will Change Everything.
That’s a big claim, and I’m sure some readers won’t get past the word metaverse in the headline, and others will ask the question, “Why is he writing about that again?”
The answer is simple. It’s going to be a source of revenue, BIG REVENUE, and it is going to change everything. Just as the Internet did in the 1990s and just like the mobile revolution did following the iPhone’s introduction 15 years ago.
Take a minute and think about that time frame: 15 years.
In that time, the entire camera industry has essentially disappeared, the publishing business has been revolutionized, a new generation has more information at their fingertips than the previous 100 generations could access in their lifetimes, and millions of “apps” have fundamentally altered everything from the way people shop and learn to the way they entertain themselves.
In 15 years, every aspect of global culture has been changed. And it’s all going to happen again.
All of that is anecdotal, and what really matters is the numbers, right? So here’s a couple of stats from the Time article that might make it seem more real:
- In the first five months of this year, corporations, private equity firms and venture capitalists made $120 billion (with a “b”) in metaverse-related investments, according to research firm McKinsey. For comparison sake, the furniture industry’s total sales for this year will be somewhere around $125 million (that’s an “m” not a “b”).
- By 2030, the metaverse is expected to generate $13 trillion (with a “t”) in annual revenue, according to KPMG and Citi.
Some people hear the word metaverse, and they think of the area on the other side of Pluto. Others picture teenagers waving their arms wildly while wearing goggles on their head. It is much more complex and much more pervasive than gaming.
Right now, metaverse virtual models enable surgeons to operate on physical patients using virtual models that serve as a kind of GPS for the human body. Furniture, right now, is being designed and built in virtual environments, and the building blocks will soon be in place for homes to be purchased and furnished in virtual space.
This isn’t science fiction. It’s current and future reality.
If you’re reading this and thinking that playing in the metaverse is only for tech companies and giant corporations, I would point out that the same was once said of the Internet and mobile technology. Have a website? Social media? Use a smartphone or tablet?
The metaverse is no more out of reach in the near future than those technologies were in the recent past.
The building blocks of the metaverse are already in place in the furniture industry. Come see for yourself Sept. 9 and 10 in Winston Salem, N.C. Furniture Today’s new Innovation Event: Furniture 2030 and Beyond will get you started. It’s easier than you think.
