McKinsey Sees $5 Trillion Opportunity in the Metaverse

The metaverse is one of the top tech concepts worldwide, but its true potential remains undiscovered. However, McKinsey & Company sees this new frontier’s potential to generate up to $5 trillion in value by 2030.

The Next Frontier and a Massive Opportunity 

The top auditing and financial services firm recently published a report positing that the metaverse could easily create up to $5 trillion in value by 2030. The report highlighted that the metaverse is already a fledgling space, thanks in no small part to the initial hype created by tech companies. 

Already, the metaverse has seen massive traction, with many believing it to be the next frontier for human interaction. Companies across different spheres have rushed to establish their presence in this virtual frontier and gain the first-mover advantage. McKinsey believes this trend will continue creating massive value creation in this new world. 

Nevertheless, McKinsey also believes that the metaverse needs to be fully formed. For the technology to truly reach its potential, the company believes it would need four enablers – devices (virtual and augmented reality, sensors, and more); open standards and interoperability; development tools; and facilitating platforms. Companies will need to focus on maximizing the human experience of the metaverse to deliver the right user experiences for everyone.  

Everyone’s Free to Play

The enablers pointed out by McKinsey appear to be all-encompassing, showing the tools needed for the metaverse itself to be a standalone success. However, of the four points raised, the diciest of the bunch would have to be the open standards and interoperability. 

Since it gained mainstream attention, there has been some confusion about the metaverse. Due to this, every player in the space has been free to create their vision of a metaverse – some focus on areas such as socialization and entertainment.

In contrast, others build purpose-built metaverse platforms that look to achieve a specific objective. So, finding standards everyone needs to abide by will be challenging since there are no specific regulations. 

Of course, this isn’t for lack of trying. In July 2022, Microsoft, Meta, Epic Games, and over 30 other companies formed The Metaverse Standards Forum. At the time, the Standards Forum was expected to foster open and interoperable standards for metaverse concepts such as 3D tech, geospatial, virtual reality, and augmented reality.

As a founding press release claimed, the Standards Forum would focus on developing “pragmatic, action-based projects” and “consistent terminologies” for the space.

While the Forum sounds like a solid idea, many soon began to poke holes in it. From the onset, industry experts noted that several major names were missing from this elite group, including Apple, the world’s largest tech firm, and metaverse pioneer Roblox. Several names in the crypto space that have also made big leaps into the metaverse – including Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, and Decentraland – were also conspicuously missing. 

Soon enough, the Standards Forum was dismissed as just another effort by Big Tech to consolidate its power and dictate the metaverse’s future. With distrust in Big Tech at an all-time high, the chances of this Forum getting far are slim.