Mining, retail, construction: the infinite expansion of the metaverse in Chile

The US Securities and Exchange Commission reported that in the first six months of 2022, the word “metaverse” appeared more than 1,100 times in regulatory documents. Last year only 260 mentions.

The above hints once again that not only the tech industry but the whole world is heading towards a new iteration of the internet – the so-called web3 – that will enable the generation of a platform of virtual and immersive worlds that is universal for all users.

On the tech side, we have already seen Facebook’s switch to Meta, Microsoft’s purchase of the giant Activision-Blizzard for about US$75 billion, and the moves of Google, Tencent, Apple, Intel, and Nvidia, to name a few key players, who are already investing and developing new approaches for this new digital reality.

On the other hand, telecommunications companies, corporations in all areas, e-commerce, multinationals with multiple lines of business, banks, investment funds, and private equity funds are already targeting the virtual world as their next steps. According to a McKinsey & Co. report, investments in the metaverse totaled more than US$120 billion in the first five months of this year alone.

Of course, to the average person, this means nothing yet. There is still nothing tangible about the metaverse – we have yet to generate the space and structure where all these worlds can coexist simultaneously – but clearly, there is already much more knowledge about the projections, possibilities, and opportunities this new universe can generate.

The synergy between new technologies, such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, the evolution of the cloud and virtual and augmented realities, and, of course, the deployment of the new 5G networks, have generated that human interaction begins to develop at another level. And with new tools. It happened with the transition to mobile and then to the cloud.

Now we have the possibility of an immersive 3D internet, with the great difference that this involves “existing” (through our avatars) in an alternative virtual plane.

So, beyond the technical and even philosophical nature of discussing the existential scopes within the metaverse, the interesting thing is also to consider the opportunities and benefits for a brand, an educational establishment, a corporation, a hotel chain, and, ultimately, any business or institution that wishes to communicate something.

It should also be considered that community platforms of video games and related activities, such as Roblox, Minecraft, or Fortnite Creations, already have millions of interconnected micro-worlds, which translates into virtual identities, virtual goods, and forms of interactivity, among other dynamics.

For now, these virtual squares are mainly focused on creativity and leisure, but in addition to activities such as attending a virtual concert of an artist within the game, we already see more advanced proposals aimed at the above.

The truth is that, although it sounds a bit corny, the possibilities are left to the imagination. For the time being, the concept of “digital twins”, virtual replicas of something that exists in reality, has already been established.

A good example of this is the case of the Taiwan International Airport. The digital twin of the infrastructure is a real-time 3D replica that makes it possible to simulate and anticipate any problems that might occur.

According to Roland Busch, CEO and managing director of Siemens AG, the German multinational, which is also Europe’s largest manufacturing company, “photorealistic, physics-based digital twins, integrated into the industrial metaverse, offer enormous potential to transform our economies and industries by providing a virtual world where people can interact and collaborate to solve real-world problems”.

The projections are encouraging, too. According to multinational financial firm Citi and consulting firm KPMG, the metaverse could generate around US$13 billion by 2030. Morgan Stanley estimated US$8 billion between the US and China, a similar projection also made by Goldman Sachs.

JP Morgan estimates that profits within the next few years will be US$1 billion a year, and it was the first Wall Street firm to have a presence in the metaverse. And according to Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, “the GDP that the metaverse can generate will eventually exceed that of the physical world”.

But there are many more possibilities, in addition to the potential profits. In Chile, the concept is just beginning to catch on. Gradually, large local companies have started to look at the possibilities of the metaverse. Or, at least in the meantime, what virtual reality is capable of offering.

According to a recent study by the consulting firm Accenture, 85% of Chilean executives agree that the virtual world must be promoted today to remain competitive. According to Gabriela Álvarez, executive director of Accenture, “the metaverse offers multiple benefits to brands, such as launching new products and services, generating new service models, and promoting effective training for their collaborators. At the heart of it all is the ability to boost interaction with customers and employees,” she says.

In addition, 55% of Chilean executives say they will use the metaverse to enhance the experience of their employees, 47% to create digital identity services, and 33% to improve the experience of consumers.

Meanwhile, Chilean companies are the most researching the metaverse in the region, with 57% of Chilean executives currently researching the topic, the highest figure in the region. It is followed by Argentina, with 52%; Colombia (48%), Brazil (33%), and Mexico (28%). The firm interviewed more than 4,600 executives in 35 countries.

The same consulting firm determined five factors to understand the impact that the metaverse can have on companies: the product life cycle, the use of digital twins, and the persistence of the virtual product.

The experience is to replicate the real shopping routine virtually and in the most immersive and faithful way possible, but without leaving home. Alvarez adds that “people are already showing a great predisposition to purchase digital products in all categories, which opens new forms of value creation and great margin opportunities for companies”.

Advertising, by the way, could eventually become the main channel of communication and experience for all types of brands, where creativity (and not budgets) will be the limit.

The fourth point refers to the experience of collaborators, where after the pandemic experience of teleworking and remote meetings, the metaverse will succeed in creating virtual centers that will integrate all the multimedia possibilities, communication, and sending files or documents, which will be done casually, in real-time and with our avatars present in this virtual space.

Finally, the consultant refers to back office operations, where, from a collaborative point of view, these can be carried out much more fluidly and anticipate any possible problem.

In our country, the concept is just beginning to be explored and assimilated by the business world, even though there are local cases where work is already being done with virtual reality to create new platforms and be ready to access the metaverse.

The mining area is one of them. Rodrigo González, the architect and CEO of Minverso, a platform created from his startup Metaverso Limitada, founded it in Santiago in 2015 and precisely developed customized virtual platforms.

Minverso is the first virtual mining world globally, which can be accessed through virtual reality glasses. From virtual simulations, all extraction processes and logistic and production chains can be monitored and tested in a context of zero danger and, of course, in real-time.

But its scope goes far beyond that. The possibilities range from virtual meetings, talks, and simulations to showroom setups and transactions.

According to the platform, the purpose is to virtualize instances of relationships in the mining ecosystem, allowing visits to digital twins, supplier showrooms, and networking spaces without geographical restrictions. According to González, “the metaverse is a virtual tool still in development, and we hope that in three to five years, it will be in full swing”.

Felipe Sanhueza, CEO of Pignus, a company that also works with virtual reality and new technologies oriented to human resources, thinks that the construction sector will also be enormously benefited by the metaverse, which has operations in quite distant places, both in the city and between them, and with the use of the metaverse, they will be able to interconnect them in a shared virtual world, achieving a higher level of communication between areas, divisions, tasks, works, depending on what it is.

It lets them know what is happening at different points in the operation and take action virtually with the information available.

He adds, “we see enormous potential in this industry by focusing on the metaverse, especially developing people and their skills. There is a lot to be gained from the social element it provides and the collaborative learning for things like inductions, assessments, training on technical development issues, and softer development. We are already working on some projects related to the same,” he concludes.

On the other hand, retail is an area that can also benefit from the possibilities of the metaverse. Roberto Nappe, director and founding partner of PeumaLabs, created in 2018 and defined as a digital transformation laboratory, is focused on creating and developing virtual and augmented reality platforms from La Araucanía.

His team developed the first augmented reality app created in Chile. It is AppAR, a widget easily incorporated into multiple e-commerce platforms available in the market. Considering that currently, more than 50% of purchases are made from mobile devices, the idea of AppAR is that the user can test, via augmented reality, if the product – an armchair, a television, or some decorative element – really fits the user’s needs, by having the possibility of replicating the product in their space, in real size.

Although it is not strictly a virtual platform, it is close to the concept of generating a digital parallel reality. Brands already have one foot in the metaverse, such as Nike, Prada, Ikea, Ralph Lauren, Sotheby’s, Dior, Adidas, Home Depot, and Gucci, to name a few.

What will be interesting will be to see how the major retailers will deal with this new challenge.

But it will be even more revealing to see how the country’s different productive and service sectors will gradually enter this virtual world because the possibilities and benefits are manifold. And in the end, we will all be winners.

With information from La Tercera

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