Many people dismiss the metaverse as an emerging, virtual world filled with cartoon avatars that has no clear purpose. (And in a way, that’s an accurate representation of how it is today.) Some companies joke about investing in them.
But in his slideshow presentation — complete with images of a polar bear avatar, Gucci NFT sneakers, and a virtual Wendy’s store — Bolen argued that while it’s still early days, business leaders need to pay attention to the metaverse and its potential.
Because he expects that it will play an increasingly important role in people’s professional and social lives and affect where they spend their time and money. (Think retail, entertainment, fashion.)
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“This is a new economy,” he said. “We need to at least understand it because in the real world it’s going to compete for their real fiat currency dollars.”
Bolen said it’s still difficult to clearly define what the Metaverse is. Immersive video games, virtual concerts, digital conference rooms — “that’s all metaverse,” he said, comparing his “everything above” to the internet.
“If you’re trying to characterize how the internet is being used today, you can’t pick a single dominant use case for it,” he said. “It’s just ubiquitous.”
Few people in the room raised their hands when Bolen asked who was “generally familiar” with the Metaverse. And he admitted some aspects of it were elusive.
“It may seem crazy to us that you would pay $200 for a picture of a sneaker for your avatar to wear while walking through the metaverse… [or] Millions for a computer-generated monkey,” he said. But people do.
Bolen emphasized that different demographics view the metaverse very differently. Take his 21- and 18-year-old sons, for example. Younger generations, he said, are much more used to representing themselves, building relationships and spending long hours online.
“Organizations cannot remain immune to these dynamics,” he said.
Anissa Gardizy can be reached at [email protected] Follow her on Twitter @anissagardizy8 and Instagram @anissagardizy.journalism.
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