Corporates Taking a 'Meaty' Slice Of Metaverse Enterprises are venturing into the virtual world to get a taste of the metaverse. From FMCG to tech giants, here is a list of companies that have already taken the plunge

While the world is now raving about the new buzz word metaverse, the term was coined by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel Snow Crash. The term was introduced to describe a virtual world in his imagined future, a 21st-century dystopia. According to Polygon, a gaming website, the metaverse is understood as a graphically rich virtual space, with some degree of verisimilitude, where people can work, play, shop and socialize, among other activities.

Of late, corporates are venturing into the virtual world to get a taste of it. From FMCG to tech giants, here is a list of companies that have already taken the plunge.

Mondelez India

The company's first step towards metaverse was the release of Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk's dinner date Valentine's Day Campaign in association with Yugverse. Through augmented reality (AR), couples were able to step into a portal and stroll around on the moon. Over a million consumers sent secret messages to their loved ones which were revealed to their partners on virtual moon. Titled, 'How Far Would You Go To Make Them Blush?', making it the first-ever dinner date on metaverse in India.

As a brand committed to delivering engaging experiences to our consumers, the growth of metaverse presents a strong opportunity to build immersive brand experiences and memory structures in an unparalleled manner. Our first step towards this was the release of Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk's dinner date Valentine's Day Campaign in association with Yugverse. Taking our experiments and learnings a notch higher, we recently introduced an inclusive and innovative way to onboard new hires using the metaverse. From the comfort of their respective locations, new hires and existing employees can transport themselves to explore digital versions of key Mondelez India locations, including head office, Global R&D, innovation centers and manufacturing facilities," said a spokesperson from Mondelez India.

YouTube

Google-owned video platform YouTube announced it is venturing into metaverse on the basis of Web3 and blockchain technologies. It aims to connect artists with their audiences on a deeper level and venture into the latest technologies like Web3 and its elements. Now, YouTube will allow users to watch videos together in the metaverse, informed Neil Mohan, YouTube's chief product officer in a blog post.

Loreal

According to reports, the cosmetic company has filed 17 trademark applications showing its interest in the virtual world and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The company aims to provide "virtual cosmetics, makeup preparations, cosmetic brushes and makeup brushes, digital animated and non-animated designs and characters, among others.

Flipkart

Fipkart recently launched Flipkart Labs, an in-house innovation capability to evaluate, build and learn from initiatives that redefine the e-commerce ecosystem. Flipkart Labs plans to explore Web3 and metaverse commerce this year, NFT-related use cases, virtual immersive stores, play to earn and other blockchain-related use-cases.

Flipkart recently launched Flipkart Labs, an in-house innovation capability to evaluate, build, and learn from initiatives that redefine the e-commerce ecosystem. Flipkart Labs plans to explore Web3 and metaverse commerce this year with NFT-related use cases, virtual immersive stores, play to earn and other blockchain-related use-cases. Since the acquisition of Scapic in November 2020, we began tapping into use-cases with augmented reality technology that allows consumers to be fully confident in the quality and fit of a product prior to purchasing," said Naren Ravula, VP and head, product strategy and deployment, Flipkart Labs.

Tanishq

Rivaah by Tanishq, a wedding jewelry focussed sub-brand from the house of Tanishq, launched its Polki collection in a virtual press conference hosted on the Metaverse platform. For the first time any Indian jewelry brand launched a collection on metaverse. The guests created their own 3D avatar and viewed the jewelry experiencing the bespoke pieces in detail.

McDonald

The fast-food restaurant chain filed 10 applications with the US Patent and Trademark Office earlier this month for the McDonald's brand and McCafe. The applications largely center around the company's expansion into the virtual food and beverage sector. The brand has more than 39,000 locations in about 100 countries.

Samsung

The company has built a virtual store, Samsung 837X, an exact look-alike of its real-life flagship New York store, on the blockchain-powered virtual world Decentraland in order to showcase its latest flagship series. Earlier, the company used metaverse for marketing and entertainment, said reports.

Meta

Last year, Facebook changed its name to Meta (FB) to reflect its focus on the virtual reality spaces known as the metaverse. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has an ambitious vision for the metaverse, in which people will interact in virtual worlds through various devices such as virtual reality headsets, but has suggested that it won't be done until the end of this decade, said a report by CNBC.

MG Motor

The automobile company, MG Motor, ventured into metaverse with the launch of MGverse. It is a step forward where users can interact with visualized data. The platform aims to provide customers with immersive experiences at every touchpoint.

MGverse is our vision for creating our metaverse, in which we and our partners will constantly explore, innovate, improvise and develop new solutions to consistently enhance the customer experience in the future. Digital technologies have advanced faster than any other innovation in human history. This initiative will help us further strengthen our relationship with GenZ and Gen Alpha. With MGverse, we will build upon our virtual customer experience content to familiarize the future generation with innovative brand experiences," said Gaurav Gupta, chief commercial officer, MG Motor India.