KPMG Steps Into the Metaverse

When it comes to the metaverse, there are some big numbers floating around. A report by investing firm Greyscale last November said “the market opportunity for bringing the metaverse to life may be worth over $1 trillion in annual revenue.” Citi raised the stakes in March, saying the “total addressable market for the metaverse could be between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030.”

Big Four accounting firm KPMG thinks all of those numbers are “conservative.”

That’s why the firm is making a big bet on the metaverse, announcing a $30 million investment this year to build a “collaboration hub” for employees, clients and more that will focus on education, training, events and workshops—and ultimately recruiting.

“The metaverse is a market opportunity, a way to re-engage talent and a path to connect people across the globe through a new collaborative experience,” said Laura Newinski, deputy chair and chief operating officer at KPMG in the U.S. “The unique experience provided by our collaboration hub will tap the creativity and passion of our people and clients to accelerate innovation.”

The KPMG Web3 venture follows a number of crypto programs, such as KPMG Canada’s addition of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) to its treasury as well as the acquisition of a World of Women non-fungible token earlier this year.

Chatter about the metaverse has been growing at near-exponential rates in the past 18-or-so months. A study by McKinsey found that in 2021, internet searches for the term increased by an eye-popping 7,200%.

And KPMG’s investment, while certainly substantial, is ultimately a drop in the collective bucket. Last year, metaverse related companies have raised as much as $10 billion, double the amount raised in 2020. And Epic Games alone raised $2 billion to help build its vision of the metaverse, bringing its valuation to $31.5 billion.

Meanwhile, a survey by the World Economic Forum found that 71% of corporate leaders believe the metaverse will be good for business. And 42% say it will be “transformational” or a “breakthrough.”

Of course, the elephant in the room is that no one can completely agree on what the metaverse will be. Today, it’s something best viewed as a 3D version of the Internet. Using virtual or augmented reality tools, users can explore virtual worlds that are more media-based than text-based, meaning you can ‘talk’ with someone in person, versus via email or messaging programs). The technology’s not fully baked yet, though. And there are a wide variety of different metaverses, which aren’t connected. Platforms include Meta’s Horizon Workrooms, Accenure’s Nth Floor, Fortnite and Decentraland.

Citi, though, says by 2030, the total number of metaverse users should hover around 5 billion.

“Users should increasingly be able to access a host of use cases, including commerce, art, media, advertising, healthcare, and social collaboration," said Kathleen Boyle, managing editor of Citibank GPS. "A device agnostic metaverse would be accessible via personal computers, game consoles, and smartphones, resulting in a large ecosystem. But getting to that market level is going to require infrastructure investment. The content streaming environment of the metaverse will likely require a computational efficiency improvement of over 1,000x today’s levels.”

That’s not dissuading KPMG. The company says both the U.S. and Canada offices will continue to explore opportunities in the crypto and Web3 space that, among other things, help people navigate the convergence of the physical and digital—or, as they called it, the “phygital”—worlds.

“The world has changed drastically over the last few years, and our people and clients are interested in exploring new ways of working,” said Elio Luongo, CEO and senior partner at KPMG in Canada. “This offers them a new immersive space to exchange ideas.”

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

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