• by Todd Wasserman , February 8, 2022

The metaverse is not some fever dream of Mark Zuckerberg. As many have noted, the term was invented by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel “Snowcrash.” A real-life version of the metaverse appeared in 2003 when Linden Labs launched Second Life, a virtual world that got considerable press at the time.

Second Life is still going, though with only around 90,000 participants, it pales next to Roblox, with reported estimates of 5.5 million.

Since Zuckerberg’s October announcement of his company’s name change to Meta, marketers have been on guard and trying to figure out whether the metaverse will be the Internet 3.0 or just a hapless Second Life reboot.

Though some doubt remains about the viability of the concept, some brands stand to benefit from the Metaverse -- while others are convinced they can.

In particular, Loop Capital Markets predicts Best Buy will be a beneficiary of consumers upgrading their PCs and buying VR headsets. Loop also predicts that Sony and Apple will ride the metaverse wave. Apple, for its part, is expected to offer a VR/AR product soon.

Then there’s Peloton, which has a feature called Scenic Rides that can take users on virtual rides though exotic parts of the world, and Roblox, which is already in the metaverse space and would conceivably benefit from more consumers entering it.

Another metaverse proponent is Nike, which just sued sneaker exchange StockX for allegedly marketing NFTs with Nike’s logo and brand. In addition, Nike filed trademark applications that previewed its plans to sell virtual branded apparel and sneakers. Nike also announced it had teamed up with Roblox to create an online world called Nikeland. In addition, Nike bought virtual sneaker company RTFKT (pronounced “artifact”) for an undisclosed amount.

Walmart, meanwhile, is planning to create its own cryptocurrency and NFTs, and Gap has started selling NFTs of its logoed sweatshirts. Gap’s NFTs will range from $8.30 to $415 and come with a physical hoodie.

The movement isn’t limited to certain retailers, either. Last Halloween, Chipotle opened a virtual restaurant, Boorito, n Roblox and gave away $1 million in merchandise. Unfortunately, the plan ran aground when Roblox experienced an “internal systems issue” that took it offline during the time period.

Chipotle’s virtual restaurant was back after Halloween and garnered at least 5 million users, and so might be considered a success.