Enterprise Application Use cases in Metaverse- Real Estate
As internet technology evolution goes through its next iteration with the Metaverse coming into its own in the past few years, there is a great deal of excitement in the tech world about its potential and possibilities.
With Metaverse gaining traction, developers and companies are finding novel ways of applying it to real-life use cases facilitating the industry’s growth at an exponential rate.
Enterprise Metaverse use cases
The Metaverse offers innovative opportunities to businesses. Here are some use cases in the Real Estate industry.
Real Estate
The metaverse not only transforms the way real estate agents buy and sell properties, but it also allows investors to purchase land in the metaverse itself.
Immersive Site visits
Through Immersive Extended Reality (XR) tours, the typical aggravations associated with house hunting are eliminated. Prospective buyers can take a virtual tour of the property, go through the floor plans in detail, and explore it thoroughly to come to informed decisions from the comfort of their homes and at their convenience.
Savills, a prominent property adviser, uses VR to market its properties. The chance to visualize properties within natural surroundings creates a huge opportunity to not only improve the design process but also enhance customer engagement. Customers can compare options with the click of a button and view the proposed structure in 3D in different weather conditions, during the day or night. VR is also increasingly becoming advanced by allowing customers to visualize the minutest details like the texture of the walls, upholstery, and so on. All this can be done without the customers visiting the site, saving time and money for companies.
Sotheby’s uses AR and digitally overlays photos of empty rooms with furniture and other artifacts that suit a client’s preferences.
Virtual Estate deals
Purchasing land in the Metaverse is now a reality with celebrity rappers like Snoop Dogg and big brands like JP Morgan, HSBC, Gucci, Samsung, and Atari staking their claim on virtual land plots. The land rush is driving up the virtual estate costs where the average price for the smallest plot on two of the most popular metaverse platforms – Decentraland and Sandbox– last year was under $1,000 and today costs around $13,000.
Another example is a prime plot in the metaverse platform, Decentraland, that was purchased for the equivalent of $2.4 million in November 1991. Land can be bought in the Metaverse through cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, SAND – the currency associated with Sandbox, and MANA – the currency associated with Decentraland.
Land purchases can be made directly from the platform or through third-party resellers and the sales and ownership transactions are done through NFT transfers. In 2021 land sales in Metaverse were worth $500 million and are expected to double by 2022.
So, why are individuals and companies buying virtual estate?
Individuals can customize their property to their liking and use it as a means of income to promote products, play games, or host virtual events.
Brands can go beyond their current digital marketing approaches and devise opportunities that offer greater customer interaction and engagement. Through virtual launch events, concerts, and festivals, companies can improve brand awareness and retention and devise innovative revenue streams.
For instance, Adidas on their plot purchased on Sandbox launched their first NFT collection. They have also used it to host events like GamesBeat Summit 2022.
Entertainment in Metaverse Properties
Land in the metaverse is bought either as an investment or to be turned into a virtual home or a place for conducting business like Snoop Dogg’s SnoopVerse. SnoopVerse is an interactive metaverse world developed in Sandbox – a popular metaverse platform – which houses a virtual version of his actual mansion in California, and which will be used for hosting private virtual concerts, parties, art gallery exhibitions, and such like.
In fact, one of his fans is reported to have spent $450,000 on a virtual plot on Snoopverse to become his Metaverse neighbor.
Daler Mehndi, the popular Bhangra Indi-pop singer has become the first Indian artist to purchase land on PartyNite, an Indian Metaverse platform. It is called Balle Balle land and will be used for hosting concerts and selling merchandise in the form of NFTs through its virtual store.
In the first-ever Indian Metaverse concert, hosted on PartyNite, Daler Mehndi performed on the 73rd Republic Day of India which drew in 20 million fans from all over the world.
Conclusion
Metaverse has created a new and unique world full of possibilities and opportunities for a diverse variety of businesses.
Although the early adopters might need to prepare for the challenges it presents currently, they will certainly gain a competitive edge by leveraging the immense potential of this field.
