companies are focused on building tools or using games to build out their platform. Meta is, however, the main company developing 3D virtual worlds “while maintaining identity and payment history.”12
Zuckerberg has, in fact, shared a much larger vision for the metaverse: he believes “humanity
will move into the metaverse in the future, leaving reality behind for a world of our own creation, that we completely control.” Claiming “there will be a point where virtual worlds are so immersive, and convenient, that we won't want to leave,” he continued: “it's about a time when basically immersive digital worlds become the primary way that we live our lives and spend our time.”13 As such, the creation of worlds and spaces will also “bring social, economic, and governance innovations.”14
There is, of course, another dimension to this talk. It’s all about money. As Zuckerberg says,
“the Metaverse will take the world into a more robust economy, where people can do things that are intellectually or physically interesting to them. Communities will pop up, leading to
monetization and self-sustaining ecosystems.”15 This explains the land rush developing around “real estate” or “places” on respective metaverse platforms, where companies and individuals can build their simulated worlds. Sandbox, Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, and Somnium – four “real estate” companies offering “a total of 268,645 parcels of varying sizes – have already sold $501 million in assets in 2021. Such sales are projected to double this year to nearly $1 billion and grow “at a compound annual rate of 31% from 2022 to 2028.”16 And prices are rising:
“The average real estate parcel in The Sandbox
metaverse platform was worth $2,620 in mid-October, according to nonfungible.com. A month later, after Facebook’s announcement, that price skyrocketed to $11,042.”17 Fifty eight plots of virtual Axie Infinity land sold for “888 ether or $1.5 million at the time of settlement.”18 Virtual land adjacent to Snoop Dogg’s
metaverse mansion in The Sandbox sold for $450K in Ethereum during the first week of December 2021.19
And it’s just not individual speculators who are buying into a metaverse real estate play. Major
companies have or indicating they will set up shop: Balenciaga, Gucci, Samsung, Nike, Adidas, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Tommy Hilfiger, Forever 21, and McDonalds.
What does the Future Portend?
These above-mentioned corporate initiatives are mostly virtual marketing and branding initiatives, but some retailers have filed patents and entered into partnerships to sell virtual clothes, shoes, clothing, and other items. More likely than not, most will probably end up with a mix of brick and mortar stores and virtual stores working together in a symbiotic relationship.
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We hope to basically get to around a billion people in the metaverse doing hundreds of dollars of commerce, each buying digital goods, digital content, different things to express themselves, so whether that’s clothing for their avatar or different digital goods for their virtual home or things to decorate their virtual conference room.49