East & Partners

What Does the Metaverse Mean to Corporates?

(21 March 2022 – Global) East & Partners Anytime Question Placement platform reveals that although the concept of the “Metaverse” means something different to every CFO and corporate treasurer globally, the majority of large multinational corporations (MNCs) are unconvinced as to precisely how it benefits their operations.

Seven out of ten top 100 revenue ranked corporates across six countries including Australia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, United Kingdom (UK) and United States (US) identified specific applications of the Metaverse and what it means to them as a concept.

The Metaverse in the view of key decision makers among large global corporates predominantly applies to Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum (29 percent), Digital Assets such as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) or other digital representations of objects with associated value (28 percent), Virtual Reality (4.6 percent), Blockchain (4.4 percent) and Web 3.0 (3.0 percent). One in ten corporates were unsure but aware of the Metaverse as a concept (12 percent) while one in five were unaware and do not understand the concept whatsoever (19 percent) noting significant variance by country. For instance Australia (28 percent) and the UK (24 percent) displayed significantly lower awareness and understanding of the Metaverse as a concept compared to Hong Kong (19 percent), China (16 percent), Singapore (14 percent) and the US (14 percent).

“While there is no shortage of hype and anticipation towards the Metaverse as a concept, corporates remain largely unconvinced of the outright tangible benefits and specific advantages the technology offers.

Ultimately engagement will be driven by customer demand, leading to a tipping point where general awareness must convert to outright capability. Key decision makers must prepare now”

East & Partners Global Head of Markets Analysis, Martin Smith

Three out of four corporates are unsure as to specifically how the Metaverse can help their enterprise the most (73 percent). Of those that are more confident about specific use cases (27 percent), most link the technology to risk management and diversification benefits such as accessing alternative forms of currency (13 percent), expanding alternative balance sheet assets (10 percent) or other purposes (4 percent).

What does this imply for financial institutions seeking to remain at the forefront of digital innovation and treasury management?

Understanding of Metaverse as a Concept
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