Thursday, January 20, 2022 07:30 a.m.
This article previously appeared in the VanEck newsletter
As 2021 draws to a close, The Matrix Resurrections will be released in the US, the fourth installment in a dystopian series about a world trapped in virtual reality. Now, just over twenty years after the first Matrix movie came out in 1999, the saga seems to portray more than ever a society that our current world is heading towards.
American tech giants have now embraced the ‘metaverse’ and are working in a digital world where digital avatars collaborate, play games, study, play sports, shop, etc. They see the metaverse as the future goal of the Internet: to meet people’s basic needs in a way that makes their lives more comfortable.
In any case, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta (formerly known as Facebook), has full confidence in her. He focuses all his arrows on this virtual world. “Our hope is that the metaverse will reach a billion people in the next decade, generate hundreds of billions of dollars in digital commerce, and employ millions of developers.”1Zuckerberg said.
When the dream of the metaverse comes true
grandview research, inc. expects the augmented reality market to grow 43.8% by 2028.two This growth is not only due to people entering the virtual world due to games, but also due to the increasing use of virtual reality by industrial and manufacturing companies.
Another dimension of the virtual world of tomorrow is the concept of the smart home. By 2022, 63 million American homes could be classified as ‘smart’, according to a forecast by Swedish research firm Berg Insight.3 These homes are then equipped with all kinds of devices, ranging from Internet-connected health sensors to cameras that allow you to keep an eye on your pets from the office.
The nervous system of this emerging virtual world is made up of semiconductors, and the real estate and currency of this world is made up of crypto assets. All the technological equipment behind virtual reality is based on semiconductors, while crypto assets are likely to replace real assets.
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ETF for the metaverse
At VanEck, we firmly believe that the virtual world will rapidly increase in size, but as a positive trend, a development that does not lead to a world like the one described in the Matrix series. Our vision is in line with that of the tech tycoons. We recently introduced ETFs that track developments in smart homes, digital assets, semiconductors, and video games.
It is common for investment firms to make predictions about the new year at the end of the year. My prediction, however, is much more ambitious: I am going to make a prediction for the next ten years. I am confident that reality will become increasingly virtual in the next decade and that the technology companies that shape this future will prosper accordingly. However, the future I envision is more utopian than dystopian: thanks to virtual reality, we will have a better life!
1 https://www.euronews.com/next/2021/12/10/meta-gives-its-first-step-to-make-the-metaverse-real-with-the-horizon-worlds-app-
two https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/augmented-reality-market-size-worth-340-16-billion-by-2028-cagr-43-8-grand-view-research-inc- -810785144.html
3 Swedish research agency Berg Insight: https://time.com/5634791/smart-homes-future/