52% of leaders in European sector think it will account for 5-20% of revenues by 2030
Kearney has released data from senior telecoms and consumer goods leaders regarding their sentiment and predictions about revenues from the metaverse.
A quarter of European telco leaders expect the metaverse account for revenues of between 5 and 20% by 2025, and 52% expect these revenues by 2030. Almost 9% predict revenues between 20 and 50% from the metaverse by 2030.
This is despite the fact the report shows that many senior leaders are unsure what form the metaverse will take and how it will affect their businesses’ bottom lines. Nevertheless, they are keen not to miss out.
Optimism trumps clear understanding
The report, Pragmatic Leader’s Guide to the Metaverse, says respondents recognise their lack of clear understanding is problem, which is encouraging, yet 84% of telecom leaders and 64% of consumer goods leaders agree their companies need to expand into new markets and channels to bag their place in this space.
The Guide draws on qualitative analysis based on insights from 167 senior telecoms and consumer goods decision-makers in companies from 1,000 to more than 50,000 employees across Asia Pacific, North America and Europe.
Less convinced
Turns out the non-Europeans aren’t so convinced: only 10% of respondents in North America predicted that between 5-20% of revenue would stem from the metaverse by 2025. This figure rises to 45% of respondents predicting this level of revenue by 2030.
Overall, 56% of consumer goods leaders and 59% of telco leaders in Europe see the metaverse as having a positive impact on their industry. However, one in four (24%) telco leaders were ‘very’ positive about the metaverse’s impact compared to only 3% of consumer goods professionals, showing that sentiment is still highest in the technology and communications space.
One of the biggest risks leaders associated with the metaverse was cybersecurity, with 57% of telco respondents and 63% of consumer goods European respondents citing this as a high impact risk to the metaverse. Interestingly, regulatory risk was also considered ‘high impact’ by 43% of telco respondents and 27% of consumer goods respondents.
Short-term focus on AI
Eric Gervet, Partner at Kearney, notes, “Where once we had been seeing positive global sentiment towards the use of the metaverse as a platform for growth and revenue, inflation and global economic slowdown have put tension on the Tech sector, which requires companies to make trade-offs and pace investments. Doubling down on AI and optimizing EBITDA has become a short-term priority versus longer term investments, at least for the very short term.”
“Companies that act now to develop a strategy for how the growth of the metaverse could impact their model will have a significant advantage over the competition in deciding which technologies, partnerships and investments will be necessary to access this revenue stream.”
THE way to monetise 5G?
Jesper Larsson, Partner at Kearney, adds, “The key challenge… will be how to monetise the platform as a revenue stream. Technologies enabling and supporting the use of the metaverse, such as 5G, could offer potential to overcome this monetisation challenge.
“Such technologies would support an increased flow of data and satisfy demand, building out the capability of this platform even as they make it more profitable. Indeed, the metaverse could be the very use case that 5G has been waiting on, to realise its true potential.”