The metaverse could become a key insurance distribution channel. Any meaningful opportunity relies heavily on the metaverse reaching the mainstream. If it does:. Agents will sell to avatars. Offerings will include both real-world coverage and metaverse-specific products.

Metaverse worlds are also looking at ads. Roblox already offers ads but is building a full ad platform. And as VR gaming progresses, developers may also take advantage of the IAB guidelines to inject advertisements. Gamers prefer relevant and realistic ads.

Meta faces the daunting task of proving that its two big bets—AI and the metaverse—are complementary. The digital ad market hasn’t fully recovered, and the company remains susceptible to changes in macroeconomic conditions that impact advertiser demand.

Impact on the Metaverse. To date, Meta Pay’s metaverse integration remains limited. Upon the rebrand, Zuckerberg outlined a broad vision for metaverse payments in a post. He described a metaverse wallet as something that would let users “securely manage your identity, what you own, and how you pay.”

And enthusiasm for Web3, crypto, and NFTs remains fairly high, supported by government initiatives such as Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the Dubai Metaverse Strategy. The stores of the future are already on display.

Our take: The Within transaction is part of a larger play by Meta to establish itself as a dominant force in the rapidly developing metaverse industry. But investors have criticized Meta for pouring money into its Reality Labs business, which focuses on the metaverse, and encouraged Zuckerberg to take it easier as ad sales plummet.

The two main metaverse platforms, Roblox and Fortnite, continue to see steady brand investment and are an effective way for advertisers to reach young audiences.

Metaverse fades: A couple of developments showed that the metaverse has a cloudy future, at least in the near term. The first of Disney’s planned 7,000 job cuts this week affected its metaverse division.

Read on: Check out our report on What the metaverse should mean to the bank to find out how FIs can embrace the metaverse and NFTs.

The metaverse development timeline will get longer. Meta is pulling back on metaverse expenditures and virtual goods fan-favorite Roblox is facing waning usage and revenues after a pandemic spike. We expect the race to build virtual environments for business and commerce to look more like a marathon than a sprint, but there’s an opportunity to take the lead as Meta idles.

What’s next: When you think about the metaverse, our leader there is Boz [Andrew Bosworth],” Sandberg told The Verge. “He is very business-minded and I think will do a great job building the next business for the company.”. One has to wonder why Sandberg wasn’t deemed the right person to build Meta’s metaverse ad strategy.

The metaverse development timeline will get longer. With Meta pulling back on metaverse expenditures and virtual goods fan-favorite Roblox facing waning usage and revenues after a pandemic spike, we expect the race to build virtual environments for business and commerce to look more like a marathon than a sprint.

I'll see you all on the Metaverse. Sara Lebow:. See you in the Metaverse. Please give us a rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts, and follow us on Instagram, @insiderintelligence. Thank you to our listeners and to Victoria who edits the podcast and is never a wild card. That's actually not true. A lot of times, she's a wild card.

CEO Bernard Arnault said the company is “looking closely” at the metaverse, but the company won’t rush an entrance into the space as he still wants to sell “real products,” per Reuters. Why we care: Will luxury’s bubble burst? Or will shoppers’ preference for high-end goods carry the category through the back half of the year? This was originally featured in in the Retail By the Numbers newsletter.

There’s value in the metaverse as it relates to personalizing experiences, which has been emphasized in our conversations with heads of digital and marketing the past year. The Segment of One Is Still the Endgame.

Metaverse gateway: Video game advertising can be a path to the metaverse for brands, offering a way to reach engaged audiences that spend time and money across gaming platforms.

Even outside healthcare, Big Tech is all-in on AI these days—even more so than the metaverse, which was all the rage in 2022. The metaverse battle between major tech players last year might shift to an AI competition in 2023.

DeFi and the Metaverse. Banks can act as an intermediary between traditional and decentralized financial systems, but they’ll need to work together to develop common standards for operating in the metaverse—or risk being beaten out by fintechs. Continue reading to learn more about what leading banks have already done and to review our 2023 checklist for developing an innovation strategy plan.

Facebook Pay rebranded as Meta Pay, bringing the payments suite in line with Meta’s grand plans for the metaverse. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he wants to build a digital wallet for the metaverse, but mass layoffs have thrown doubts over the project. Meta pulled the plug on its crypto payments wallet, Novi.

They don’t shop in the metaverse, but they might in the future. The general consensus was that the metaverse is not a place where Gen Z shops or interacts with brands … yet. “I don’t really believe that the metaverse as it stands is going to exist in the future, but I do believe it’s going to evolve into something we will all use one day. And as a Gen Z[er], I want to be a part of it,” said Lute.

Despite the fuzziness of the metaverse as a concept, luxury brands have been first movers when it comes to participating in the digital frontiers of fashion. And luxury consumers indicate a range of interests in a variety of new features. Partnerships with gaming platforms give luxury brands access to large and engaged young user bases.

Ecommerce sales of cosmetic and beauty products will grow substantially at 19.4%. 50%: The percentage of US teens and adults who expect shopping or browsing for beauty products will be made better in a virtual/metaverse environment, per Vox and United Talent Agency.

Mad about the metaverse. Meta’s world: The platform offered a virtual recreation of Cannes that included two Horizon Worlds experiences to help show how brands are approaching the metaverse. Why it matters: “A lot of businesses are already stepping into the metaverse, and they don’t know it,” Bridget Evans, head of business marketing for Instagram Shopping, told us in an interview.

The retailer is partnering with the video game/metaverse platform to create two virtual, branded experiences:. The first is Walmart Land, a virtual theme park with Walmart-themed rides and other shared branded spaces like a movie theater where users can play Netflix trivia.

Even Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the leading proponent of the metaverse, said a functional metaverse is years away from being realized. This article originally appeared in Insider Intelligence's Connectivity & Tech Briefing—a daily recap of top stories reshaping the technology industry. Subscribe to have more hard-hitting takeaways delivered to your inbox daily. Are you a client?