The opportunities and risks of Metaverse for small businesses

cointelegraph.com:

The Metaverse has been become one of the biggest buzzwords in the blockchain and crypto, as it promises to provide a more immersive, interactive and collaborative experience than what the internet has accomplished to date. 

This promise of a new world has huge enterprises like Meta (formally known as Facebook) investing huge sums in the budding space. When most hear the name Metaverse, their mind wanders to a few things: an avenue for global conglomerates to showcase their technology-forward bent, an esoteric product for a selected few to display nonfungible tokens (NFTs) or a new front in gaming development. However, a deep dive into Metaverse reveals a whole new world, a world full of new opportunities and risks for both consumers and businesses.

Although the current Metaverse ecosystem might be populated with giant corporations, eventually, for wider adoption, small businesses will have to make a transition. Looking at historical patterns in the adoption of new technology like the internet, mobile payments and more, it is apparent that small businesses play a monumental role in getting the masses onboarded.

One of the critical insights from Facebook’s Connect 2021 was that the advent of Metaverse is imminent, but the timeline for widespread adoption is spread out at least over a decade. A study done by Pew Research found that around 54% of top technology innovators, developers and businesses. Meanwhile, policy leaders believe that by 2040, the Metaverse will be a functioning aspect of daily life for a half-billion or more people globally.

The urgency for transitioning to Metaverse may not be immediate, but businesses should be considering the technology at least in the periphery. By strategically using resources now, an