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Above is a table from Google Trends, in the last week of October 2021, the term Metaverse peaked interest and we all know why.  

Facebook deciding to change its name into Meta and embracing Metaverse should not be discounted as a mere PR necessity. There is a serious effort backing the vision and interestingly, Facebook is not the only player that is making a considerable move in this direction.  

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What is Metaverse?

Neal Stephenson who is an American Writer producing work in the speculative fiction genre coined this term in the year 1992. It surfaced in his novel called – “Snow Crash”.  

In the book, Metaverse was presented as a form of three-dimensional virtual reality. A second world, where people would use their Avatars to participate in various activities. Through their Avatars they lived in this virtual reality attending concerts, games, even watching a movie. It was an existence that was akin to a metaphor to the real world.  

Facebook and Metaverse  

On the 28th of October, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook is investing in creating an innovative vision of the internet and this shall be known as the ‘Metaverse’.  

The network wants to revolutionize the experience the platform will offer through virtual and augmented reality. Oculus, the virtual headset would act as a physical portal to access this new dimension. Founded in 2012 Oculus was acquired by Facebook two years later for 2.3 billion USD.  

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Other players  

Note that Facebook or Meta now has taken the lead in this dimension as we are already addressing some very large corporations as other players.  

These are gaming giants Epic, Microsoft, Amazon and Google – each entity is pursuing this new dimension in the world wide web to their respective ends. A growing number of companies are in the race to place themselves as 'Metaverse Ready'.  

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What technologies are being used?  

• VR – Virtual reality  

• AR - Augmented Reality

• Mixed Reality 

• 360 ° Video

• Immersive technologies  

The above list outlines technologies that are at the same time visual formats in which videos will be displayed.

However, here instead of a mere change in screen or design format or colors and pixels we are talking about an entirely different ecosystem.  

Impact on businesses  

While Metaverse may sound like something of the distant future, it is closer than we think it to be. There is a growing use case scenario and companies are working fast to adapt and optimize this new reality.  

1. Immersive training – Accenture has acquired 60,000 Oculus headsets to train its new recruits. 

          Boeing has reported that using AR they managed a 25% productivity improvement in their wiring harness assembly.  

2. Market research – Using VR and the possibility of eye-tracking, companies are deploying VR headsets to study audiences.  

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3. Sales – ‘Try it before buy it’ reaches a whole new dimension when you can do it remotely. This will lead to a massive change in consumer behavior in various sectors such as cosmetics, apparel, home furnishing and so on.  

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4. Manufacturing – VR and AR leads to rapid prototyping and product design. Automotive companies are implementing VR technology to reduce time between the design stage and physical modelling. 

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Importance of shifting marketing efforts towards immersive videos 

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On YouTube, 360 video has a 28.81% higher view rate than a fixed video. 

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● VR will take your product or service presentation to the next level

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● It will help you increase brand awareness 

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● It will enrich customers' experience  

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● It is bound to increase customers engagement 

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At All in Motion, we have a team of people with capabilities to help you discover content for the Metaverse, write to us at hello@allinmotion.com