Financial Services firms foray into the metaverse
Beyond Social Media & Gaming
– Subhojit Shome, Executive | finserv@vinodkothari.com
Introduction
The ‘Metaverse’ has become the latest favourite buzzword on Wall Street with players from Big Tech, Gaming, Entertainment and the FMCG Industries touting it as the best thing to happen since sliced bread.
It is now the turn of the Banking and Financial Services Industry to jump onto the bandwagon and with big ticket traditional players, like JPMorgan and PwC, buying up prime virtual real estate in the metaverse and with revenue estimations from opportunities in the metaverse being projected at $1 trillion and beyond,[1] other players (both traditional and new age) cannot help but take notice.
In this overview, we attempt to provide a bird’s eye view of what the metaverse is and the opportunities that it offers specifically to those involved in the financial services space.
The Many Definitions of the Metaverse
The term – ‘Metaverse’ – is borrowed from American writer, Neal Stephenson’s dystopian sci-fi novel – Snow Crash – wherein it is used to describe a virtual-reality based successor to the internet.[2]
In the real world context, the term has been variously defined and used, be it by tech gurus or c-suite executives. In general it has come to imply an interactive digital world with online communities providing immersive experiences.
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