Skepticism and Euphoria 2.0

The German economy is divided on the metaverse

When it comes to the metaverse, the German business community is divided, with skepticism and open-mindedness balancing each other out. Around one in four companies is generally interested and open-minded about the issue, but a similar number is critical and dismissive. 34 percent are still undecided. One in four sees an opportunity for their own company in the metaverse, one in five a risk. One third assume that the metaverse will have no influence on their own company, while 21 percent are not yet confident enough to make an assessment.

These are the findings of a representative survey of 604 companies with 20 or more employees in Germany commissioned by the digital association Bitkom. However, a slight majority believe that the metaverse will significantly change the Internet and offer a wide range of new business opportunities. However, 42 percent consider it to be a short-term hype that will not meet expectations and will soon disappear again. "The Metaverse builds on a variety of comparatively young technologies, such as blockchain and virtual reality. In the tech scene, some are expecting a real revolution of the Internet. Whether this will come true is currently completely open," says Bitkom Chief Executive Bernhard Rohleder. "The important thing is that German companies are open to this technology and are watching very closely to see how it develops and what it can offer them."

Digital Twin

For their own companies, the respondents can imagine virtual meetings for internal collaboration, virtual company representations and training courses for employees in the metaverse. But team-building events, product presentations and product sales are also considered interesting. Recruiting new employees, providing services and marketing follow at some distance. Hardly any companies consider direct investments in the Metaverse, such as with virtual land purchases, to be interesting. The metaverse is not a virtual parallel world, but both a 3D extension of the Internet and a virtual extension of the real world.

There are numerous connections between the real and virtual worlds: real money is used to buy virtual goods, digital twins and avatars represent real machines and people, and digital information is displayed in our field of vision via augmented reality. Possible applications range from virtual visits to concerts or shopping trips through purely digital shopping malls to virtual meetings of teams distributed across continents and the digital twin of real factories in which changes to the production process can be tested. By 2030, various consulting firms forecast a global market volume of several hundred billion euros for offerings related to the metaverse. 

In general, two-thirds of companies believe that the metaverse is still a long way off. However, 14 percent also say that the metaverse threatens their current business model. And almost one in four companies even sees the existence of the entire company threatened by the Metaverse. 

Benefit and practice

Companies see a variety of challenges around the metaverse. For example, they complain that the technology is not yet mature and that there is a lack of standardization of metaverse applications. But the benefits are also still generally questioned. For example, two-thirds lack practical applications, and a similar number want to wait and see what others do with the metaverse. Fifteen percent lack the time to get involved with the Metaverse. "For the metaverse to be a success, it urgently needs standards and interoperability. Very few companies will spend the time and money to be part of a metaverse solution if they run the risk of backing the wrong horse," says Rohleder.