Any discussion involving the metaverse starts with a touch of sci-fi, futurism, and multiverse theory, as it seems that we still do not have a uniform definition of what exactly we are talking about. This J.P. Morgan report has defined the metaverse as:
a seamless convergence of our physical and digital lives, creating a unified, virtual community where we can work, play, relax, transact and socialize
It looks like augmented, virtual, and mixed reality technologies (AR / VR / MR), artificial intelligence (AI), video games, avatars, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and blockchain will be part of it. Some have summarized it as a 3D version of the internet; others, that it is the natural evolutionary next step for the digital economy. Some say that it is not possible to define it clearly yet, because it is being built, so in the same way nobody could describe today’s internet in the 70s or 80s, nobody can — yet — describe accurately what the metaverse is. Others are less impressed with the hype and say that the opportunity is already here, and it is called video games.
What is clear is that there is a lot of money being invested in the metaverse. And as I said a few times in this newsletter, to understand personal data exploitation, just follow the money. The global metaverse market is estimated to reach over $1.6 trillion by 2030, showing a compound annual growth rate of 43.3% from 2019 to 2030.