What will the Metaverse be in Five Years?
The metaverse is here to stay as the next iteration of the internet. While an older generation may not see why this is the next technology, a younger generation and their parents are seeing the transition. The younger generation is interacting and meeting online in the metaverse. This could be Roblox, Minecraft, or Fortnite. Their discussions are in the universe, and their money is used in the metaverse.
The next five years will see a consolidation of technologies and seamless integration of disparate but connected technologies in terms of advertising, augmented reality, and cryptocurrency.
Consolidation of Metaverses
There will only be a few winners in the metaverse. And in this technology iteration, it will be platforms that will win, not the devices. Windows won with the consolidated platform in the 1990’s. Apple won the 2000’s with the iPhone, centralizing access to the web via one mobile device.
The metaverse battle will again be won by platform, not by devices in this iteration. Roblox has already integrated multiple devices to work in their metaverse. This includes computers, mobile, and virtual reality devices. Back in 2022, Roblox realized that a user must have the same quality experience in their metaverse regardless of the device, and they put engineering effort into making the experience standardized across devices.
Metaverse’s like Minecraft and Fortnite have followed suit. You can have the same experience across multiple devices.
In five years, there will only be a few winning platforms. Here are the stocks likely to win out:
Roblox - This metaverse platform went public in 2021 after being in operations for over a decade. Even through 2024, the company continues to grow their revenue and users at a consistent rate. Roblox has seamlessly added millions of children and young adults to their platform over the years, and all of these soon to be consumers are not as connected with traditional social media. Many don’t even have Twitter or Facebook.
Microsoft - Microsoft is a serious threat in the metaverse space. While Facebook was loud about their failed push into the metaverse, Microsoft has gone the quiet approach – they’ve been buying out metaverses. Minecraft, Activision-Blizzard, and the X-Box are all major players in the metaverse, with Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft” one of the original developers in the metaverse. There is serious consideration to be made that Microsoft may just buy Roblox. Just like their purchases of Github and Linkedin, Roblox has the growth prospects while still being small enough for Microsoft to buy. Roblox would fit perfectly into Microsoft’s portfolio and allow them to dominate the future of the metaverse.
Meta Platforms doesn’t look like it will be a major player in the metaverse. Honestly, content is king and Meta platforms isn’t delivering. While their devices may be making some headway in the market, the future of the metaverse is all about the platform not the devices.
Ad Revenue will be King
Roblox announced plans to create an ad platform in 2023. Currently, Roblox does not share their ad revenue numbers in their quarterly presentations, but the developer community has a full advertising platform to be used now.
Advertising will have an outsized effect on Roblox’s revenue, but more importantly, give its “experience” developers (3rd party developers who build in the metaverse, each metaverse is called an “experience”) a very important tool to expand their own revenue streams. With advertising, developers can focus on the experience and consumer activity instead of optimizing for just Robux spending. This freedom could seriously cause a renaissance of Roblox development on the platform.
Growth of Virtual Events
Virtual events exploded during Covid-19, but have languished in the last couple of years.
The introduction of in-universe advertising will likely help virtual events explode again in 2025 and 2026. Virtual events had proven numbers. The number of users in each even reached the millions. This will show advertisers they have a captive audience, allowing them to advertise to these users knowing they are watching.
Mix this in with virtual showrooms and sponsored activities in universe and advertising opportunities are endless.
Imagine a virtual concert taking place. With the new ad platform, you could see brands like Chipotle and Samsung will billboard ads around the arena. These could be videos or they could just be an image.
Imagine walking around the audience, and virtual vendors are using virtual t-shirt cannons to shoot in-game goods into the audience. These could be shirts and hats for their avatars. Virtual goods like these already can be found in high demand in Roblox and the Roblox market.
Virtual Markets over Virtual Land
Speaking of virtual markets, it’s looking more and more likely that virtual goods will be the definitive asset in the metaverse. Virtual land just doesn’t seem to be holding its value and its use case seems limited in an ever-expanding metaverse.
Virtual goods can be used forever by the user. Roblox virtual goods adopt to the players avatar size regardless if they are an angel avatar or an alligator avatar. Virtual goods are moving billboards for brands and can be limited in supply thanks to NFTs.
So what will happen to virtual land? It will be replaced by immersive ads. These will meet the desired intent of virtual land.
Advertisers will want to be in a simulation with highly captive audience like a virtual event.
The key reason immersive ads will overtake virtual real estate is that immersive ads are infinite and can be duplicated in multiple, high traffic, universes (a multiverse of ads). Virtual real estate is too static in a single universe.
Seamless NFT and Cryptocurrency Integration
NFTs were regarded as a fad and fallen in market capitalization since 2022.
But expect NFTs to pick up again in the coming years, but rebranded and reused in entirely different ways as they are now. Right now, NFTs are used to certify ownership of a unique real or virtual asset using the blockchain to secure the transaction of ownership.
Why is this all important? Because as metaverse’s consolidate to a few key platforms with billions of different simulations, users will want to use their virtual goods within different metaverses. NFTs allow users to use their virtual goods in multiple simulations and metaverses. These unique items, for example an avatar hat, could be used in Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft with the help of NFTs.
Advertisers who use virtual goods will want this ability for uniqueness, allowing their virtual brand goods to be collectibles for users to search for and allows these virtual goods to be seen in multiple metaverse platforms.
Final Takeaways
The metaverse will iterate in the next five years to improve concepts built earlier in the decade. NFTs will transform and take a bigger role in virtual goods, while the blossoming advertising in the metaverse will explode, transforming how metaverses and metaverse developers will make money.
As the metaverse evolves, metaverse platforms will start to consolidate. The key will be metaverse platforms, not metaverse devices, as users can access the metaverse from multiple devices.
As an investor, you can take advantage of the metaverse megatrend by investing in
Read More
How the Metaverse Makes Money
Metaverse Investment Analysis
What will the Metaverse be in Five Years?
The metaverse is here to stay as the next iteration of the internet. While an older generation may not see why this is the next technology, a younger generation and their parents are seeing the transition. The younger generation is interacting and meeting online in the metaverse. This could be Roblox, Minecraft, or Fortnite. Their discussions are in the universe, and their money is used in the metaverse.
The next five years will see a consolidation of technologies and seamless integration of disparate but connected technologies in terms of advertising, augmented reality, and cryptocurrency.
Consolidation of Metaverses
There will only be a few winners in the metaverse. And in this technology iteration, it will be platforms that will win, not the devices. Windows won with the consolidated platform in the 1990’s. Apple won the 2000’s with the iPhone, centralizing access to the web via one mobile device.
The metaverse battle will again be won by platform, not by devices in this iteration. Roblox has already integrated multiple devices to work in their metaverse. This includes computers, mobile, and virtual reality devices. Back in 2022, Roblox realized that a user must have the same quality experience in their metaverse regardless of the device, and they put engineering effort into making the experience standardized across devices.
Metaverse’s like Minecraft and Fortnite have followed suit. You can have the same experience across multiple devices. In five years, there will only be a few winning platforms. Here are the stocks likely to win out:
Roblox - This metaverse platform went public in 2021 after being in operations for over a decade. Even through 2024, the company continues to grow their revenue and users at a consistent rate. Roblox has seamlessly added millions of children and young adults to their platform over the years, and all of these soon to be consumers are not as connected with traditional social media. Many don’t even have Twitter or Facebook.
Microsoft - Microsoft is a serious threat in the metaverse space. While Facebook was loud about their failed push into the metaverse, Microsoft has gone the quiet approach – they’ve been buying out metaverses. Minecraft, Activision-Blizzard, and the X-Box are all major players in the metaverse, with Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft” one of the original developers in the metaverse. There is serious consideration to be made that Microsoft may just buy Roblox. Just like their purchases of Github and Linkedin, Roblox has the growth prospects while still being small enough for Microsoft to buy. Roblox would fit perfectly into Microsoft’s portfolio and allow them to dominate the future of the metaverse.
Meta Platforms doesn’t look like it will be a major player in the metaverse. Honestly, content is king and Meta platforms isn’t delivering. While their devices may be making some headway in the market, the future of the metaverse is all about the platform not the devices.
Ad Revenue will be King
Roblox announced plans to create an ad platform in 2023. Currently, Roblox does not share their ad revenue numbers in their quarterly presentations, but the developer community has a full advertising platform to be used now.
Advertising will have an outsized effect on Roblox’s revenue, but more importantly, give its “experience” developers (3rd party developers who build in the metaverse, each metaverse is called an “experience”) a very important tool to expand their own revenue streams. With advertising, developers can focus on the experience and consumer activity instead of optimizing for just Robux spending. This freedom could seriously cause a renaissance of Roblox development on the platform.
Growth of Virtual Events
Virtual events exploded during Covid-19, but have languished in the last couple of years. The introduction of in-universe advertising will likely help virtual events explode again in 2025 and 2026. Virtual events had proven numbers. The number of users in each even reached the millions. This will show advertisers they have a captive audience, allowing them to advertise to these users knowing they are watching.
Mix this in with virtual showrooms and sponsored activities in universe and advertising opportunities are endless. Imagine a virtual concert taking place. With the new ad platform, you could see brands like Chipotle and Samsung will billboard ads around the arena. These could be videos or they could just be an image.
Different brands in the metaverse
Imagine walking around the audience, and virtual vendors are using virtual t-shirt cannons to shoot in-game goods into the audience. These could be shirts and hats for their avatars. Virtual goods like these already can be found in high demand in Roblox and the Roblox market.
Virtual Markets over Virtual Land
Speaking of virtual markets, it’s looking more and more likely that virtual goods will be the definitive asset in the metaverse. Virtual land just doesn’t seem to be holding its value and its use case seems limited in an ever-expanding metaverse.
Virtual goods can be used forever by the user. Roblox virtual goods adopt to the players avatar size regardless if they are an angel avatar or an alligator avatar. Virtual goods are moving billboards for brands and can be limited in supply thanks to NFTs. So what will happen to virtual land? It will be replaced by immersive ads. These will meet the desired intent of virtual land. Advertisers will want to be in a simulation with highly captive audience like a virtual event.
Seamless NFT and Cryptocurrency Integration
NFTs were regarded as a fad and fallen in market capitalization since 2022.
But expect NFTs to pick up again in the coming years, but rebranded and reused in entirely different ways as they are now. Right now, NFTs are used to certify ownership of a unique real or virtual asset using the blockchain to secure the transaction of ownership.
Why is this all important? Because as metaverse’s consolidate to a few key platforms with billions of different simulations, users will want to use their virtual goods within different metaverses. NFTs allow users to use their virtual goods in multiple simulations and metaverses. These unique items, for example an avatar hat, could be used in Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft with the help of NFTs.
Advertisers who use virtual goods will want this ability for uniqueness, allowing their virtual brand goods to be collectibles for users to search for and allows these virtual goods to be seen in multiple metaverse platforms.
Final Takeaways
The metaverse will iterate in the next five years to improve concepts built earlier in the decade. NFTs will transform and take a bigger role in virtual goods, while the blossoming advertising in the metaverse will explode, transforming how metaverses and metaverse developers will make money.
As the metaverse evolves, metaverse platforms will start to consolidate. The key will be metaverse platforms, not metaverse devices, as users can access the metaverse from multiple devices.
As an investor, you can take advantage of the metaverse megatrend by investing in
Read More
How the Metaverse Makes Money
Metaverse Investment Analysis