A detailed look at the state of the entertainment industry

Technologies, Business

Article | August 3, 2022

In the 3D interactive space of metaverse, nothing is impossible. People from various corners of the world can create, share, and explore virtual worlds in this space. They can also interact, trade, and do business. What does metaverse offer B2B businesses, though? Let us take a look. From Virtual Storefronts to Digital Employees While metaverse is still in the early stages of development, businesses can have their own virtual storefronts, digital employees, and virtual currency in a virtual reality. Business exclusive metaverse platforms like Sansar, Somnium Space, and Decentraland offer companies an option to establish their virtual presence. How is Metaverse Transforming B2B Businesses? Metaverse presents businesses with the unique opportunity to build client relationships face-to-face. Branded experiences like product announcements, product showrooms, company updates, educational sessions, conferences, and networking events can be done in metaverse. Let us explore other ways in which metaverse can enrich B2B businesses: Richer Customer Experience Immersive buyer experiences influence prospects to make purchase decisions faster. B2B sellers in metaverse can create such experiences through interactions that surpass traditional sales approaches and focus on visually attractive sales presentations to convert prospects. Effective Marketing and Advertising New marketing and advertising opportunities in metaverse are developing with every passing day. Over time, companies may be able to sponsor events or create targets ads to attract a certain demographic. The companies that establish themselves in the metaverse might have a bigger advantage in this regard compared to the companies that venture into it later. Higher ROI and Sales Increasing sales and ROI are crucial for every business. Reaching new markets and tapping into new revenue sources is easier with metaverse. It will allow salespeople to host multiple meetings with buyers living in different parts of the world without having to leave their actual office, saving multiple costs while conveniently still creating client relationships that last. Improved Workforce Efficiency Metaverse-based training simulations help employees upgrade their skills. Additionally, customer service associates can create avatars to provide business customers assistance in real-time. Metaverse encourages employees to communicate better and allows remote employees to virtually connect for projects, meetings, and feedback. Last Word B2B businesses can capitalize on the convenience of metaverse and harness this latest technology to offer their customers visually immersive experiences.

Technologies

Article | February 14, 2022

The appointment of Lina Khan on June 15th to chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is poised to be a transformational one in the history of the world wide web. Khan came to prominence with an article in the Yale Law Journal, Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox, which identified the paradox of hegemonic tech service providers which bypass the US’ strict competition laws by offering lower prices to the end consumer. Under US antitrust law, the driving indicator of market monopolies are higher prices for the consumer – under this strict definition, none of the tech majors which dominate the digital economy are monopolistic. Indeed, some such as Alphabet and Facebook do not even directly charge the end user for their services. So, while both Google and Facebook dominate the global digital ad market, making an antitrust case against them under the current 20thcentury era regulatory framework is nigh on impossible. However, the absence of meaningful competitive challengers to these two incumbents in search and social advertising over the previous 15 years, despite the lucrative high margin business opportunities, implies that the competitive market is not performing according to classical economic theory. Khan has built a subsequent career on trying to square this circle, and now the Biden Administration has empowered her as the key instigator of the sweeping regulatory update required for a digital-first century.

Technologies, Virtualization

Article | July 27, 2022

News that New York-based Pershing Square Tontine Holdings is planning to acquire 10% of UMGis the latest in a wave of financial transactions in the music rights space. Alongside this, Believe’s impending IPO has the potential to be one of the biggest things to happen to the independent music sector in some time, and comes as part of a wave of IPOs (e.g.WMG,UMG), SPACs (e.g.Anghami,Reservoir) and no end of catalogue funds and acquisition vehicles. This trend, with good cause, has been referred to as the ‘financialisation of music’ but that only captures part of what is at play here. This is more than simply an influx of capital and debt; financial institutions are now becoming part of the plumbing of the music business, and in turn they are changing the definition of what constitutes success. This shift in objectives and desired outcomes has the potential to rebalance how the music industry operates.

Article | April 11, 2020

Ever since the adoption of VR gaming to the gaming market, it sure has seen upheavals—disruption by significant players in the industry like PSVR, Rift, and the Vive. PSVR has been the best-selling VR headset ever since its launch, selling over 5 million units on December 31st, 2020. While these numbers portray PSVR as successful, its hardware is lacking behind, and still, no sign of upgrades has been hinted by Sony. Speaking of which, a lot of gamers have long been waiting for a hardware upgrade or a hardware sequel—PSVR 2—from Sony, but very little or nothing has been said on this matter.