Enterprise, Not Consumer, in the Vanguard of US$60 Billion Metaverse Market Development

ABI Research, a global technology intelligence firm, sees the enterprise metaverse opportunity (immersive collaboration, digital twin, and simulation software and services revenue) approaching US$60 billion by 2030. Adding in additional revenue from the augmented and virtual reality market would further add tens of billions in revenue opportunities on the software and services front.   

Michael Inouye, Metaverse Markets and Technologies Principal Analyst at ABI Research, explains, “The metaverse, being a long-term vision, means the buildup to this future is just as intriguing as the final product, and in this regard, it is the enterprise markets that are leading ahead of the consumer segment. For example, efforts on the standardizations front are being driven through the enterprise space.” The Digital Twin Consortium directly targets industrial, while the Metaverse Standards Forum and Universal Scene Description (USD) support the entire metaverse. Early traction and development have targeted the enterprise – NVIDIA’s Omniverse platform (based on USD) as an example has seen solid industry support and early traction within the enterprise markets and is pushing accessibility through Omniverse Cloud.    

Like the consumer gaming market, the transition to Enterprise 3D also predates the recent attention to the metaverse. In this case, the augmented and virtual reality market, along with simulations and digital twins, represent solid foundations and growth opportunities. Still, perhaps, more importantly, these industries are already focusing on interoperability and standardizations.

“The enterprise metaverse deserves more attention than it receives. The enterprise segment has a higher order of diversity, owing to different industry targets and a more fragmented customer base,” Inouye adds. The retail front for metaverse, for example, tends to focus more on innovation and the customer experience, with companies like UneeQ and Soul Machines working on digital humans, while others such as Touchcast are looking to impact CX by bringing more immersive interactions or TechSparq helping companies enter the virtual shopping space.

There is also a higher order of maturity with pre-existing markets and digital transformations, such as migrations to the cloud. For example, the digital twin and simulation market has established market leaders like Altair, Ansys, Autodesk, Dassault Systemes, Presagis, PTC, and Siemens, which, along with more innovation-leaning companies like cloud specialists SimScale, are helping companies through their respective digital transformations.

The enterprise metaverse has many moving pieces, from balancing hybrid workforces to digital transformations and more stringent ROI targets, but with the early momentum, this segment of the metaverse is off to a solid start. “The industry needs to continue working on and coalescing around key standards and best practices. While expectations do vary broadly, the enterprise metaverse is better positioned to exceed early market forecasts,” Inouye concludes.

These findings are from ABI Research’s Evaluation of the Enterprise Metaverse Opportunity application analysis report. This report is part of the company’s Metaverse Markets & Technologies research service, which includes research, data, and ABI Insights. Application Analysis reports present an in-depth analysis of key market trends and factors for a specific technology.