Today, the digital association Bitkom published new survey results on the digital vision of the metaverse. According to the results, 17 percent of respondents had already heard or read about the so-called metaverse, but only a small share was able to explain well what it was.
In the future, the so-called metaverse could dissolve the boundaries between the real and virtual world and expand today's Internet to include even more direct forms of participation and interaction. In this digital world, users could move around as avatars, professional meetings could take place via virtual reality instead of video calls, and clothing could be tried on in digital 3D stores instead of traditional online shops.
For this representative survey, Bitkom Research on behalf of the digital association Bitkom conducted online interviews with a total of 1,109 people in Germany aged 16 and above in January 2022.
These are the key findings:
- 17 percent of German consumers said they had already heard or read about the metaverse. However, nine percent did not know exactly what it was about, and five percent knew only roughly. Only three percent of respondents said they could explain the metaverse well.
- The majority of 74 percent of respondents had never read or heard of the metaverse. After a brief thematic explanation during the survey, 34 percent said they found the concept fundamentally exciting.
- Consumers could imagine discovering the metaverse via virtual reality glasses (37 percent), were of the opinion that large parts of private and professional life would soon take place in the metaverse (24 percent) and that it would bring people closer together (19 percent).
- Others thought that the metaverse was still a distant dream of the future (81 percent) or a hype would soon be over (42 percent).
Achim Berg, Bitkom President, explained: "The metaverse is one of the most exciting visions of our time. Already today, the first companies are presenting their products in the metaverse and virtual properties are changing hands there for millions. Even if many questions are still open: The metaverse has the potential to fundamentally change the Internet as we know it today. And it can bring great opportunities for society and for the economy. In any case, it is a design task."
Source: Bitkom
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