February 13, 2022
By Anjali Kochhar
A new study shows that right after social media giant Facebook announced rebranding itself as Meta, excitement surged among mobile applications as they started adding the buzzword ‘metaverse’ to their marketing campaigns.
Industry insiders are calling it a ‘FOMO’ (Fear of Missing Out) moment for the brands.
Global technology firm Sensor Tower in a blog published on its website revealed that over 86 apps have added references to the metaverse to their title or description on the app store and Google Play from November 21 through January 2022.
Facebook announced redoubling its efforts on the metaverse on Oct. 28 last year. In the following month, the number of apps updating their descriptions or titles to reference the metaverse grew 66% month-over-month, the data revealed.
By Febuary 8, some 552 apps had included the keyword “metaverse” in their description or titles, as per the data. They also mentioned words like “crypto”, “NFTs,” “AR,” and “VR”.
This has raised questions about whether these apps are actually using the blockchain or this has just been done to capitalize on the new trend.
Blockchain Assets Review spoke to industry experts to gauge what’s happening around.
Here is what they had to say:
Raj Kapoor, founder of India Blockchain Alliance and Chief Growth Officer at Chainsense said, “It is a FOMO moment – jump on the bandwagon or be left behind!”
Pointing out the new trend, gaming platform Roblox was touted as a metaverse frontrunner, Kapoor said. “It is pretty evident that marketers didn’t much care about the actual technical requirements for the metaverse to exist — like the new industry standards that would need to be built to allow for movement between interoperable digital worlds, where all your friends, connections and virtual ‘stuff’ comes with you.”
“While the term “metaverse” is being used in abundance. As to whether or not the addition of the word “metaverse” to these apps is working to bring in users remains less clear,” Kapoor told Blockchain Asset Review.
“While it’s clearly been adopted to capitalize on users’ app store searches for the word, apps that succeed in this market are likely just offering better user experiences than those that aren’t.”
Dileep Seinberg, founder and chief executive officer of global blockchain consulting firm Thinkchain echoed Kapoor’s views and noted that as Web3 and NFTs were the buzzwords last year, this year will see ‘Metaverse’ gaining attention.
“Internet is an interesting space, in every year we see some of the buzzwords coming in. Last year was the starting point for Web3 and NFT and this year it is Metaverse. Especially every gaming, media and internet (company) needs to adapt quickly to new things. This gives familiarity with the new things,” Seinberg told Blockchain Assets Review.
“This is going to change things not just for tech but for other businesses as well,” he added.
Shivam Thakral, CEO of Indian exchange BuyUcoin noted that brands are doing this to stay updated to sustain customer interests and “metaverse offers a whole new dimension to marketers to engage with their target audience.”
“Whenever there is a new emerging technology, businesses are very quick in adopting because they want to stay ahead of their competitors in today’s dynamic world,” Thakral told Blockchain Assets Review.
About the author
Anjali Kochhar covers cryptocurrency stories in India as well as globally. Having been in the field of media and journalism for over three years now, she has developed a sharp news sense and works hard to present information that goes beyond the obvious. She is an avid reader and loves writing on a wide range of subjects.
