Africa and the metaverse
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African tech startups are just getting started, while big technology makes billions. However, given the sharp increase in expenses, one can question if Africans will be able to engage with the virtual reality "metaverse."
Through the use of virtual reality (VR) glasses, which allow users to enter the "metaverse," a virtual world made up of various and diverse realms, entering a store or boarding a plane became simple tasks to complete at home during the years that the COVID-19 pandemic kept most of the world closed off. This can have a real global economic impact worth a staggering trillion dollars.
According to analysts at "African Business" magazine, the
"metaverse" could become the next embodiment of the internet, with
extended reality (XR) technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented
reality (AR) - which integrate the digital and physical worlds - providing an
amazing experience for consumers.
Big tech giants and the focus on the "metaverse"
For some doubters, the "metaverse" is an ambiguous concept that
confuses our understanding of current technologies; it could be a trick likely
to become a reality like the science fiction novel Snow Crash. The future
defined by participation in the digital world seems far away in sub-Saharan
Africa. Despite significant improvements, only about 28% of the population was
connected to the internet by the end of 2020, according to the GSMA (Global
System for Mobile Communications Association).
However, tech giants are taking it very seriously. Facebook rebranded itself as
"Meta" to reflect its ambitions in the metaverse and announced the
hiring of 10,000 people in a new $10 billion "metaverse" division
tasked with creating extended reality devices, software, and content. (XR).
In January 2022, Apple's stock price jumped by 8% on the same day that CEO Tim
Cook announced his company was investing in this concept.
Brands, banks, and musicians are all trying and planning their future decades
in the "metaverse," and "JP Morgan" expects the concept to
eventually achieve a trillion dollars in annual revenue.
Developing the "metaverse" may take time as its boundaries have not
yet been precisely and clearly defined. But if the major tech companies
succeed, the "metaverse" will represent an achievement and technology
similar to the internet, where users navigate through gateways to virtual
worlds instead of applications and tabs on internet browsers.
According to experts, the concept will emerge over time with the introduction
of new device technologies in the market to enhance and strengthen the virtual
world, including improvements in graphics, visual aids, and sensors. Users of
the "metaverse" will be able to possess parallel digital identities
through avatars, and they can also socialize, play, work, and shop using cryptocurrencies.
African companies are moving forward.
This may seem like a distant dream in Africa, but some companies are already
realizing the possibilities that the metaverse can offer. The Nigerian fashion
technology company Thrill Digital uses augmented reality, virtual reality,
cryptocurrencies, and gaming to create a "metaverse" for fashion.
This step represents progress for African companies to consider adopting the
metaverse in the future.
The company won a $40,000 grant from Epic Games, a leading American video game
and software development company that invests in developing metaverse
technologies, to start Astra, a crypto game that allows its players to collect
as many tokens as possible within a specified time period to win real luxury
fashion items.
It can be considered a preliminary plan for now, but the Thrill Digital team of
African developers is building a "metaverse" consisting of digital
"cities," where partner brands can sell digital fashion to buyers who
wish to adorn avatars or tangible physical items to be shipped around the
world.
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Morgan Stanley estimates that the virtual fashion market alone could be worth
more than $55 billion by 2030. The cost of high-end digital clothing exceeds
thousands of dollars, as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) provide proof of digital
ownership. Nike showcased the Nikeland site for the first time on the Roblox
gaming platform, reaching 47.3 million daily active users worldwide, and Gucci
recently sold a virtual handbag on Roblox for $4,115.
The flourishing of digital real estate
The decentralized "metaverse" will be built on Web 3.0 blockchain
technology, a new type of mobile internet with financial assets in the form of
NFTs that generate the cryptocurrency necessary to build a digital economy.
The cryptocurrency market has driven a virtual real estate boom, where buyers
are snapping up parcels of digital "land." In December, the country
of Barbados used cryptocurrency to purchase "land" on the virtual
world platform "Decentraland" to build a new embassy, and
"Gucci" recently paid $2.43 million for a virtual piece of land to
build a virtual store selling digital clothing.
The value of digital real estate is determined by its scarcity and location
within each platform: Decentraland, for example, contains 90,000 plots of land.
When all the plots of land are sold, brands, companies, and virtual event
organizers will have to rent the land from the owners. Buyers receive a digital
receipt for the property with an NFT, and they can arrange a mortgage before
contacting a real architect to design a building.
Then, architects send their designs to a 3D model designer to work with
programmers. Real estate sales in the virtual metaverse surpassed $500 million
in 2021, and are expected to double this year, according to consulting firm
MetaMetric Solutions. Whether it is rooted in speculation or real economic
potential, it remains to be seen, but some African companies are making waves
in this sector.
In "Africarare," the first African metaverse with a 3D virtual reality
experience, South African artist and painter Norman Catherine has developed a
set of 3D avatars for consumers to wear. The company has a plan to build a
virtual world called "Ubuntu Land" in Africa, which will contain
villages, art exhibitions, and wildlife parks. The land will be rented or sold
for business meetings, art exhibitions, and other events, and the world will be
further developed in collaboration with architects, programmers, and software
developers.
Africarare organizes special events and campaigns for brands, including a
virtual art exhibition for a bank that can be accessed using a headset. It will
be a means for a global brand or an African company to own a virtual piece of
Africa using these worlds, which means it will change the entire concept of
business.
Opportunities for African brands
African brands can also benefit greatly from the metaverse as a means of self-promotion. For marketers, advertisers, and brands, the metaverse's captive audience offers enormous potential.
Africans must now view the metaverse as a continuous process of development and exploration. As a result, companies and marketers will have to decide how to react to this change. With certain products, Amazon already offers the option to view an augmented reality (AR) version of the sofa and choose whether it is appropriate for the living room.
And what about the ability
to sit in a Tesla car and see the entire dashboard and understand the different
controls?
One of the greatest attractions of the metaverse for early adopters is its
decentralized nature, where users benefit from blockchain technology to enjoy
user-owned experiences.
The future prospects of the metaverse in Africa
Getting lost in an online mall or having a corporation share their biometric information is not a major worry for the majority of African consumers. It seems improbable that anyone other than the most economically engaged and tech-savvy people will have access to this new world very soon.
Data costs are high, and internet bandwidth speeds are slower than in most other parts of the world. Sub-Saharan Africa is regarded as the most costly region for mobile data services, and just half of Africa's population has access to fourth-generation mobile internet networks.
However, as Africa's population becomes the largest workforce in the world by
2035, major tech companies insist that the "metaverse" will gradually
open up economic opportunities in Africa, indicating its importance in the
evolving world of work post-pandemic.
Derya Matras, Vice President of Meta for the Middle East and Africa, sees that
working in physical offices by software developers, architects, blockchain
accountants, artists, gamers, storytellers, teachers, marketers, and project
managers will increasingly begin to migrate to the "metaverse."
In reality, there is immense talent on the African continent, and there is no
more exciting place to see it in the creative and technical space, where local
solutions are being created for global problems and challenges. In fact,
technology gives people new opportunities every day to become entrepreneurs and
content creators, and it is expected that the "metaverse" will play a
significant role in Africa.
Meta has launched its $50 million two-year research fund for XR programs to
build the metaverse, which includes funding for the "Building Worlds,
Future Africa: Storytelling" program. The program will see the company's
partnership with Africa No Filter, Electric South, and Imisi3D to support
creators who amplify African voices and push the boundaries of digital
storytelling.
Content makers can get up to $30,000 in funding and "Meta" assistance to advance their talents using immersive technologies including "360-degree video technology or panoramic imaging technology in all directions simultaneously," as well as virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality.
Social technology is evolving, and while it won't happen right away, the metaverse will eventually give people and communities in Africa and around the world new chances.
The primary obstacle, however, is how affordable technology is for customers. According to the top international research and consulting organization "Omdia," 12.5 million virtual reality headsets were sold in 2021, and by 2026, the market is expected to reach 70 million units. However, until prices are further lowered, the "Oculus Quest 2," the best-selling virtual reality headset, will remain out of reach for all but a small percentage of African internet users, as it retails for $299.