India Inc's Tryst With Metaverse

Large Companies, Platforms, And Enablers Are Tapping An $8 Trillion Global Opportunity. Can It Live Up To The Promise?

- Ajita Shashidhar And Asmita Dey

THIS VALENTINE'S DAY, Mondelez India created a metaverse experience of a dinner date on the moon! Through augmented reality (AR), the couples were able to step into a portal and stroll around on the moon. Over a million consumers sent secret messages to their loved ones which were revealed to their partners on virtual moon. Titled, 'How Far Would You Go To Make Them Blush?', it was inarguably the first-ever dinner date on metaverse in India.

In IPL 2022, Nestle India is giving cricket fans an immersive experience on metaverse through its chocolate brand, Munch. It has launched limited-edition packs featuring players from four IPL franchises. A scan of Munch packs takes consumers into an AR experience of cricket games and meeting digital avatars of players. Fans can click pictures with players through attractive AR filters.

And Tanishq has launched its bridal collection in metaverse under the 'Rivaah'brand; participants can even try the piece in Rivaahverse' using QR codes on mobile phones.

Large Indian firms are beginning to embrace the bold new world of Metaverse-an unexplored universe, often in 3D, AR, or virtual reality! It is immersive, and almost as uncharted as internet was in early 90s (see What is Metaverse). It is ripe for exploration of newer business models, use cases, and ways to engage stakeholders-be it customers, suppliers, dealers, or employees. These unlimited possibilities have opened the race for first-mover advantage, for which an ecosystem of platform enablers, content creators, and Web 3.0 communities is getting ready to build businesses of scale. Big money is set to back this dream. Funding in local sectoral start-ups touched $520 million in 2021 from $9 million in 2019, data from market research firm Venture Intelligence shows.