A virtual world is a computer-simulated environment, which can be populated by users’ personal avatars. With their avatars, people can simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities, play games, attend meetings, and communicate with others. Technologists say the metaverse is supposed to be the next level of the internet. Since Facebook announced their name change to Meta and their plan to focus on building its own digital world, interest in metaverse real estate skyrocketed.
Even though metaverse real estate is a concept mind-boggling to most people, many are already buying up land that doesn’t even exist in the real world. Some of those are professional real estate agents, celebrities, and early speculators.
According to Meta Metrics Solutions, real estate sales in the metaverse surpassed $500 million in 2021 and could double in 2022.
Why and where should you buy virtual real estate?
First, imagine you’re offering a product or service that can be delivered worldwide. In such case a metaverse can connect you with customers and consumers looking for a more engaging method to communicate with your brand. Meaning, purchasing virtual land in areas where there is a lot of virtual engagement might put your business in front of hundreds if not millions of additional visitors. We can compare that to shops that are located in most populated areas and therefore, get more customers. And second, when consumers prefer a more engaging method to communicate with businesses, major companies will start investing more in building the metaverse and less into other forms of communication.
Another way to think about it is like purchasing a domain name or having a good social media profile. If email was our home in Web 1, and social profiles—like a Facebook or Instagram page—were the Web 2 home bases for each of us, then personal property in the form of virtual real estate may be the Web 3 version. The difference is that this time, in Web 3, the property is intended to be something that you, the user, can build yourself. For brands, it could mean something much more interactive and active than their current digital presences. For individuals, it could mean earning income by playing games or selling products.
How to protect it?
Protection that makes the most sense now, is NFT. NFTs are, in a highly simplified way, digital certificates that can guarantee you own something. They’re one-of-a-kind. Because of this, NFTs have the potential to become an avenue to keeping our real estate data reliable and safe while allowing us to transfer digital assets anywhere in the world safely.
Bottom line
Even though there are already numerous metaverses today, most of them have little consumer confidence in terms of potential growth. But the truth is, tech giants such as Microsoft and Facebook, now Meta, are investing billions of dollars in developing their virtual worlds.
Source: Forbes, CNBC
