The evolution of the metaverse will open up new avenues for businesses to expand their footprint, online and beyond, but entering this unfamiliar digital space can be daunting for any organization. The metaverse can be thought of as a space that integrates physical and digital realities to offer an enhanced, personalized experience to its users. Indeed, the metaverse’s technological mind-bend offers the potential to revolutionize the global marketplace and thus, will require businesses and other organizations to have the capacity to reach clients abroad by crossing the language barrier.
The metaverse is not a new concept. The gaming industry can be considered an early version as games often provide its users a way to have a separate “life” online. Fortnite is one of the best-case studies to show how impactful real money transactions (RMTs) can be to a company’s revenue. Developed by Epic Games, Fortnite was released as a free-to-play game with a team-based survival mode and its more popular battle-royale mode, but it offers players the ability to purchase in-game cosmetics by spending real currency on ‘V-bucks.’ Players can use V-bucks to acquire emotes and unique skins for their weapons or characters. Overall, the game has been quite lucrative for Epic Games, generating $5.8 billion in 2021 alone with a player base of 400 million. These features are common as a way to bolster revenue and hopefully maintain player retention. As of 2021, it is estimated that real money transactions generated $100 million in profits for the gaming industry, this figure will likely continue to grow as the live-service games continue to explode in popularity.
The services first provided by video games have been co-opted into the greater metaverse. Amenities provided by the metaverse will be very diverse. Users can enter into this alternate, online world space to buy groceries at Walmart or attend a Lil Nas X concert on Roblox. Eventually, people will be able to plan their everyday lives through this interactive experience. The potential the metaverse offers to businesses is immense. According to research conducted by Gartner, it is expected that by 2026, up to 25 percent of people will use the metaverse for at least one hour each day, which could generate a market worth anywhere from $800 billion to $1 trillion by 2024.
One of the most complex issues for businesses to consider is that cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will likely play a large role in facilitating transactions within the metaverse as blockchain technology advances. Blockchain has been promoted as another way to convey the rights of ownership of a good from one person to another or allow access to a specific service that non-owners will not be able to enjoy, such as reservations at an exclusive NFT restaurant.
While the modern metaverse is still in its infancy, it has the potential to dramatically alter how consumers and businesses interact with each other. There will be challenges that organizations will need to overcome in order to successfully integrate themselves within this digital space, especially when it comes to reaching consumers across the language barrier. The 25 percent of the world’s population spending up to an hour on the metaverse by 2024 cited by the Gartner study equates to approximately 1.75 billion people. That means a business operating in the digital space will need to be able to reach consumers who may speak a different language. Professional translation services can help businesses attempting to navigate the metaverse by allowing the latter to interact with consumers they may not have previously been able to reach.
