Mic Mann, Africarare

The metaverse is attracting a lot of attention and money. Venture capitalists poured around $13 billion into metaverse projects during 2021, and this year seems set to crush that benchmark. McKinsey predicts that this virtual space will have a $2.6 trillion impact on ecommerce, and Gartner expects that in four years, a quarter of us will spend at least an hour a day in the metaverse.

To some extent, the metaverse already exists through virtual and augmented reality, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and virtual worlds. You can visit metaverses such as Decentraland or South Africa’s Ubuntuland. You can buy virtual property, inspect virtual clothes, and sometimes transfer these activities between real and virtual worlds.