Navigating the Metaverse

Chapter 5New Business Opportunities in the Metaverse

Now that we have looked at key reasons why the metaverse economy presents interesting business opportunities and the prevalent consumer profiles, it's time to look at how businesses can get involved in the metaverse. This brings us to business models. Admittedly, we do not know the full landscape of business models in the metaverse at this point. It's far too early for any metaverse expert to claim that knowledge. But that doesn't mean we can't brainstorm to give you a few ideas.

To give this brainstorming session some context and grounding, we're going to use the past as a reference point for the future. Specifically, we can look at business models commonly used on the web today – in search engines, websites, and social media. After all, if the metaverse is an evolution of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, then why not cultivate a metaverse business model from those best practices?

With that said, this chapter isn't intended to be a golden path to the “right” or “best” models. These are pioneering days, so we're going to explore a bit and you're welcome to join us. Every business will take its own route with all the twists, turns, and revelations that come with the journey.

Michael Rappa's Business Models on the Web has been a long-standing resource that breaks down the many types of businesses into buckets. Taking applicable parts of Rappa's model and building on it to cover novel metaverse opportunities results in a solid overview. ...