To be that the great omens that were predicted to the metaverse will not finally come true. The current reality is that the metaverse is far from profitable that companies thought they would achieve. And under that thought, Tencent, the world’s largest Chinese company in the video game sector, has decided to take a step back. Something very significant.
The company has decided to carry out some changes in its structure for the coming years based on an exhaustive analysis of the market. What seemed to give good results is no longer so and their pulse has not trembled to back down. The economic difficulties they have gone through have made them aware that it is difficult to make short-term profits from the metaverse.
The non-profitability of the metaverse
The step back taken is driven by the lack of profitability, the company that developed the League of Legends game has decided don’t go ahead in his plan to launch his own virtual reality hardware for the metaverse. If there is no profitability, there is no business and that is something that Tencent has been clear from the beginning.
Given the commitment launched by Meta and the launch of Facebook, Tencent wanted to be at the forefront and opted for it, for which during 2021 he has been working hard. The intention was clear, to compete with Meta and Microsoft. And it was not only the company from China, but from that moment they were many companies that launched their proposals and intentions for the metaverse.
During 2021 he was investigating the possibility of a virtual reality ecosystem made up of software and hardware developed by themselves. To achieve this, the Chinese giant created a division within its framework to launch their own metaverse.
Beyond reversing its intention to place itself ahead of its competitors, now more than a year after that, the business division will cease to exist something that entails consequences for your employees. The company has already notified its intention to cancel this area to its more than 300 workersto whom he gives two months so that they can find a new job.
It will not be only Tencent that decides to go back, but everything seems to indicate that many more will take the alternative of going back. They all share that the metaverse is not cheap, so betting on it involves a large outlay, and if there is no short-term profitability, the plan does not work. Along these lines, in the month of November Meta has already laid off 11,000 workers and subsequently Microsoft did the same with nearly 10,000 employees.
The companies estimate that in order to create an interesting product that is attractive to reach the desired profitability, the investment must be high. In the case of Tencent, it was not considered that it would arrive until 2027 and this is something that they have not been able to maintain any longer, and it is that various sources, although denied by Tencent itself, report that it also already had debts on its gaming software.
In Spain the metaverse is not very well received
With the international panorama presented, which has revolutionized the market and industries, it is interesting to know how it is presented in our country. It is striking, that although it achieved great popularity, according to the data provided by the First Observatory of Metaverso and Companies of Spain carried out by ISDI, in Spain 50% of professionals are widely unaware of the metaverse.
The data continues and the 40% of those asked do not understand how the metaverse can become part of the industrywhile 23% admit that it is difficult for them to understand the term and 14% assure that they do not even understand the concept and purpose of the metaverse.
Although only 4% of Spanish companies are immersed in developing projects for the metaverse, companies do recognize the need to train in it to understand it as a means for progress. And it is that although 28% of the companies are already focused on this development, it is a high percentage that still confesses that they need more information to be able to cover it.
The applications where the metaverse stands out the most are those related to remote work, productivity and connection and interaction with customers. For their part, sectors such as healthcare, marketing, education or tourism seem to be clear candidates to present the metaverse as a solution for the future.
Although there are still voices that indicate that the metaverse will become the great advance of computing and games, the reality now is that it is far from it. the metaverse has not achieved the expected objectives and this has been noted in the changes of the companies.
