An executive from Facebook parent Meta Platforms told an advertising conference on Monday that the metaverse will provide businesses additional opportunities to earn money, replete with a video of holographic avatars fencing and playing basketball.
Vishal Shah, the company’s head of metaverse, spoke via video conference at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s annual leadership meeting in New York on the potential for brands in digital products and immersive shopping.
“Without the physical constraints that exist now that put pressure on businesses’ bottom lines, such as real estate, supply chain, and geographical reach,” Shah told the audience, “the metaverse will offer up more chances for enterprises to generate money.”
Facebook, which derives the majority of its revenue from digital advertising, renamed itself Meta in October to represent its new bet on the metaverse, a future concept of a network of virtual spaces accessed via various devices where users may work, socialise, and play.
A fireside conversation with Neal Stephenson, the science-fiction novelist who popularised the term “metaverse” in his 1992 dystopian novel “Snow Crash,” is on the schedule for the advertising conference later this week.
Stephenson’s presentation will take place on the same day as panels with Unilever’s marketing vice president and HPE’s head of global media investment.
Meta, which believes the metaverse will be the replacement to the mobile internet, has made significant investments in virtual and augmented reality.
It hasn’t said anything about how brands will profit in the metaverse.
Shah, who stated that the Foo Fighters would conduct a performance in its virtual reality events app Horizon Venues following the Super Bowl on Sunday, cited the company’s collaboration with the NFL, which allows users to dress their VR avatars with team jerseys, as an experiment in digital goods.
Meta experienced significant share losses this week after announcing sluggish user growth and a lower-than-expected revenue outlook, which it blamed in part on Apple’s privacy restrictions, which have made it more difficult for businesses to target and assess advertisements on Facebook and Instagram.
Before the metaverse is completely realised, which Shah believes might take a decade, companies should continue to use its commerce channels on Facebook and Instagram, and marketers should experiment with constructing augmented reality commercials.
“Everything you do now across our applications will help you in this metaverse future,” he added.
