The metaverse has become a buzzword in recent times and many information technology companies in India are exploring this exciting space. While IT company Infosys recently launched metaverse foundry, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said it is exploring the metaverse.Tech Mahindra is also leveraging opportunities in metaverse through various use cases including DealerVerse-metaverse-based car dealership, Middlemist-NFT marketplace, Meta Bank, a virtual bank and gaming centre.
Metaverse is one of the focus areas of Mindtree as its offering will enable customers to accelerate and optimise their transition into the meta economy. It will create more use cases for industry groups on metaverse.What exactly is the metaverse since many companies are showing growing interest in it? It is a combination of technologies such as non-fungible tokens (NFT), crypto, 3D modelling, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR).
“A lot of these have come together to form the ‘Metaverse Universe’. From being a fad, or one part of web3.0, metaverse is slated to become mainstream in the next 3-5 years. when it does, the first thing that will change is the fact that companies in order to either service their customers or be part of their value chain will have to adopt it as part of their offering,” said Pankit Desai, co-founder & CEO, Sequretek, a cyber security company.
Infosys metaverse foundry will fast-track enterprises’ exploration of the metaverse, including virtual and augmented environments for their customers, workplace, products and operations. The IT firm has created a set of assets that can help its clients.
Speaking about it, Salil Parekh, CEO of Infosys, said they are already in active discussions with several clients to see how they can use it. “In the manufacturing segment, our clients are considering how they can use this (metaverse) in terms of replicating actions on a factory floor or training or various areas. In retail, people are looking at the metaverse concept to demonstrate various aspects of their products to engage with the new customers who’re more present in the metaverse,” he said.
IT firms can provide their clients with in-built solutions that can span architecture, network capabilities and cloud infrastructure. Metaverse is like a universe and the construction, operation and maintenance of that is mainly an IT sector mandate, said Ambarish Ray, co-founder & CEO, Digital Dogs Content and Media.
Building blocks for meta
L&T Technology Services (LTTS), a subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro, has established a metaverse vertical within the company, and it is going to be headquartered in Chennai.Already big companies such as Apple, Meta (Facebook) and Microsoft have invested a lot in the metaverse. In 2021, Meta is said to have spent $10 billion on the metaverse. In January this year, Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard, a game developer for $68.7 bn, and it said this deal would provide building blocks for the metaverse.
Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO and MD, TCS said given the amount of investment that’s going in, they are ready to participate. “Individually, we’re participating in a few places with one of the largest telecom service providers in North America, and with a medical device manufacturer, helping them reimagine the approach to training of new medical devices. In fact, different use cases have been experimented with. And we are integrating our design studio capabilities with our digital capabilities and our knowledge of the domain to try and bring this together into the metaverse,” he said.
CP Gurnani, MD & CEO, Tech Mahindra, said, “Metaverse has the power to disrupt our reality, as well as the future, for good.”The company would be training 1,000 engineers to ensure they are ready to solve complex business challenges and imagine new worlds for its customers and society.
Opportunities in metaverse
Apart from IT, metaverse will also bring advantages for celebrities and creators. It will bring together the community of creators by providing a means for the user to interact with virtual objects like never before.“It is going to enhance the overall experience through high-quality interactions and increased sustainability. The digital real estate ecosystem has also become massively popular in the metaverse where brands and people are investing millions of dollars to buy land in the virtual world. The potential and the futuristic opportunities in the metaverse are way more than what we can actually imagine,” said Abhay Aggarwal, founder & CEO of Colexion, a blockchain-based NFT marketplace.
According to Statista, the global metaverse market size stood at $38.85 billion in 2021, and it is expected to rise to $47.48 billion in 2022, and surge to $678.8 billion by 2030.Talking about the future of metaverse, Pankit Desai said in the next 3-5 years, it will be a legitimate avenue and companies and consumers will spend time and money on it.
“COVID accelerated the adoption of traditional offline technologies to the online platform. Medical consultations and analysis moved online, edtech became mainstream, and the consumption of games and OTT platforms got a huge boost. In the same way, we will see legitimate physical experiences move online into the metaverse universe,” he added.Since it provides a real-world experience, considering the multi trillion-dollar opportunity in the space, many firms are jumping on the bandwagon.
Metaverse boom
The global metaverse revenue opportunity could approach $800 bn in 2024
The global metaverse market size is expected to reach $1,607.12 bn in 2030 & register a revenue CAGR of 43.3%, according to Emergen Research
Infosys recently launched Metaverse Foundry, and has already developed over 100 use cases and templates
Tech Mahindra will train 1,000 engineers so that they can solve complex business challenges
Metaverse is slated to become mainstream in the next 3-5 years