Visa and Payments and Commerce Market Intelligence (PCMI)

How to unlock the potential of the metaverse?

The idea of the metaverse has been stealing the imagination of technologists, futurists and innovators for decades. And, as the definition of the metaverse has evolved, tech giants such as Apple and Meta (ex-Facebook) have made recent announcements that have generated great expectations and set the stage for revolutionary breakthroughs and practical applications.

The unveiling of the Vision Pro glasses and Meta's announcement of the Quest 3 glasses symbolise extraordinary strides towards unlocking the true potential of digital experiences. They are also a glimpse of the first use cases that may become widely adopted. With recent advances in technology and the convergence of different disciplines, the metaverse is increasingly moving from being a mere speculative idea to a tangible reality.

The aim of this whitepaper is to explore the metaverse comprehensively, to understand its potential and the technologies that drive its development. To begin with, we will lay the groundwork for the metaverse, its evolution and its main characteristics.

We will then examine the vast number of opportunities the metaverse presents us with in different sectors, such as entertainment, education, commerce, social interactions and creative expression. Later, we will address the obstacles to the growth of the metaverse. 

We will look at technological challenges, privacy and security concerns, legal and regulatory considerations, socio-economic implications, and ethical considerations. 

In the next section, the focus will be on the convergence between Web3, spatial computing technologies and generative AI; we will emphasise how these technologies can take the metaverse further.