While a NUMBER of companies in India have been investing in the metaverse and related technologies, its success will depend on how it overcomes the barriers of affordability, regulatory uncertainty, safety, and security. The determinants for adoption of the metaverse will be unique to every industry and its adoption levels may vary depending on the business applications.
Research firm Gartner defines the metaverse as a collective virtual 3D shared space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical and digital reality. Gartner expects that a complete metaverse will be device-independent and will not be owned by a single vendor but will have a virtual economy of itself, enabled by digital currencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
An organisation’s digital immaturity, interoperability, and data privacy are some of the key challenges to the adoption of metaverse, according to Gartner. “Limited understanding of the technology and the skepticism around it is making it difficult for vendors to pitch the solution. Second, there is no interoperability between the different products and services that are currently marketed as ‘metaverse’. Third, on privacy, there are increased risks of harassment, hacked avatars, data breach, etc. Similar case with social media platforms today, and any forum in which users can interact with one another, there is the risk of behaviour that may be considered offensive, dangerous, or potentially illegal,” said Anushree Verma, director analyst, Gartner.
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The high cost of wearable hardware such as ocular glasses, haptic suites, etc., limits large-scale adoption of the metaverse, according to a Deloitte report.
“The success of metaverse penetration will depend on organisations’ digital maturity to tap into its core levers of phygital immersive experience, trust layer, economic infrastructure, creator economy, etc., and the pace of development of the surrounding ecosystem,” said Sreeram Ananthasayanam, partner, Deloitte India. “The affordability of underlying technologies, which is a product of (a) market sentiment and (b) government policy, will play a huge role in adoption of the metaverse.”
The Deloitte report states that unlike mobile numbers and e-mail IDs, “a robust identifier balancing the requirements of a holistic metaverse experience and safety of individuals is yet to be developed. At present, it is quite easy to create digital avatars of individuals without their consent and impersonate them across multiple immersive worlds.”
The large-scale adoption of the technology will depend on the ability of the platforms and communities/entities governing it to ensure a safe experience and secure digital assets for users. “This might not be an easy task as even established metaverse platforms have struggled internally to integrate safety features into their metaverse services,” the report stated. Building a robust security and threat monitoring mechanisms into such platforms must be key focus areas for widely accepting and adopting the metaverse.
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Finally, regulations and laws can shape the adoption of technology. “For instance, in India, the legal and regulatory position on the use of virtual digital assets, smart contracts, etc., is yet to gain some clarity. Hence, the large-scale adoption of metaverse may face difficulties in the near future,” the report stated.
Gartner says the metaverse will evolve across three overlapping phases: emerging, advanced, and mature. Each phase will be defined by distinctive influences across technology, market, and product/service characteristics. “It is yet in an emerging phase in India. The emerging metaverse stage consists of precursors represented by commercially available products and services we know today, like social networks, online games, e-commerce, cryptocurrencies and NFTs,” said Verma.
