Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – New technologies assist the development and digitalization of enterprises. However, when it comes to business, the introduction of the metaverse was akin to a paradigm shift, as it ushered in many novel possibilities and approaches.
With the virtual world’s advantages allowing individuals to explore more digital areas, engage with other users, and share benefits and services with them, large and medium-sized businesses have substantially boosted their research on opportunities to launch a business in the world of the metaverse.
Saudi Arabia will invest over US$ 6.4 bn in cutting-edge tech, including US$ 1 bn going to NEOM Tech & Digital (after the city’s acronym). In addition, state-owned Saudi oil giant “Aramco” would spend US$ 1 bn in the “Venture Capital Fund” (Prosperity7 Ventures) so that the company can focus on technology investments. The official Saudi News Agency also reported that the corporation aims to build its metaverse in the future.
Today, the real estate sector is the preferred investment, real or virtual. Real estate based on metaverse is a land on a platform where you can build anything digitally, such as a gallery of paintings or a hall for holding digital concerts. The platforms that develop these lands reap the revenue by selling or renting them to luxury brands and fashion houses trying to reach consumers in the metaverse.
Key sectors
Industries in the region will use metaverse interchangeably when necessary. However, until now, there is no specific way to know what sector will invest in the metaverse the most and what fields will be positively impacted by this technology.
Mohamed Khaled, Co-Founder and CEO of Hotdesk, explained in an interview with TRENDS: “if you want to speak to a banking assistant instead of a phone line or going into a branch, you could virtually meet your wealth advisor within the metaverse. When it comes to construction, you might use the metaverse for training and looking at blueprints in VR so that every industry will have a different use case of the metaverse in different capacities”.
Inevitably, specific sectors will take longer to see the benefits than others, but a more generic version may be implemented across the board.
Given that many businesses now employ teams dispersed across many locations and offices, the metaverse offers a unique opportunity to bridge geographic and cultural divides and provide a glimpse of true collaboration, according to Khaled.
From a broad application standpoint, the metaverse must be baked into the foundation of every business moving forward.
Different methods
When discussing Web 3.0, Khaled thinks “different work methods will be used interchangeably in the future, whether in the office, home or co-working spaces.”
“The metaverse fits into that mix,” he said.
Khaled added: “It is seen as both a location and an addition to the working space dynamic. You can access the metaverse from the home, office, and co-working space, whether this is high level or if you’re in virtual reality. At Hotdesk, we see the metaverse as benefitting the future of work”.
To maximize real estate efficiency and business skill, Hotdesk’s infrastructure enables businesses to book internal and external space interchangeably, on-demand, with data analytics on the movement of the entire workforce. Including the metaverse expands the potential for social interaction. It will be used as a prop in the “office of the future” play.
Challenges and expectations
The metaverse is now facing challenges similar to those faced by the internet in its infancy. For the longest time, people needed phones or wired connections to the internet to access the web; only once these technologies became widely available and commercialized did the web’s presence grow rapidly.
Equivalent tools are required in the metaverse. Anything from virtual reality goggles to a gateway run by a global metaverse leader to ensure that all users are integrated and not isolated is fair game.
Khaled believes the metaverse centers will pop up in offices and co-working spaces in its first stage, where people have limited equipment. Yet, the next step, he added: “becomes how humans psychologically adapt and move towards it.
The use cases of a metaverse in the GCC and the MENA region will vary primarily depending on the core nature of work within each sector, as Khaled sees it.
Dubai seizes the opportunity
The UAE has become one of the leading countries relying on metaverse and artificial intelligence to conduct its affairs. As a result, Dubai moved swiftly toward adopting the metaverse as a critical component of its strategy to strengthen its global position, which it had obtained by adopting the most effective methods for managing state affairs.
The Dubai Metaverse Strategy aims to consolidate Dubai’s position among the top 10 cities in the world’s leading economies in the “Metaverse” field, make it a major center for the global “Metaverse” community, increase the number of blockchain companies by a factor of five compared to the current number, and enhance Dubai’s success by attracting 1,000 regional companies. By 2030, Blockchain and Metaverse will provide 40,000 virtual jobs and contribute to Dubai’s economic growth. Virtual and augmented reality, two essential facilitators of the metaverse, already generate approximately 6,700 jobs and roughly US$500 million to the economy of the UAE, and their economic contribution could grow dramatically.