“The metaverse is attracting large investments from technology giants such as Google, Meta, Microsoft and Nvidia to make the virtual world a reality, and the applications hold unlimited economic and social potential for both good and bad,” said Rajesh Ranjan, partner at Everest Group.
As enterprises apply their best creative and strategic thinking to how to take advantage of the metaverse, they should also address the heightened risks the metaverse will pose to employees, customers and corporate assets.
“As organisations develop their business strategies for the metaverse, trust and safety issues need to be among their foremost considerations. Enterprises may be able to adapt some best practices of today, but they will also need to address scenarios and use cases that are unique to the metaverse.”
Rajesh Ranjan
"Solving those novel challenges will require a collaborative approach among enterprises, policymakers, academia, and T&S service providers to realize the full potential of the metaverse as an immersive yet safe place for users,” said Ranjan.
Viewed as an interconnection of virtual worlds providing immersive social experiences, the metaverse is still at a nascent stage, it is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years, opening new possibilities for enterprises, including trade in digital assets such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), immersive marketing, enhanced customer experience, improved employee training, and live virtual events.
However, as the metaverse expands, enterprises will have to deal with new trust and safety (T&S) challenges, such as the abuse of virtual avatars and the safety of virtual assets. Organisations will need to come up with risk mitigation policies to make the metaverse a safe space for users.
Risk mitigation strategies
The report “Taming the Hydra: Trust & Safety in the Metaverse” lists metaverse risk mitigation strategies for T&S risks, including:
- Abuse of virtual avatars, including invasion of personal space, impersonation, harassment, assault, bullying, stalking, and spying.
- Concerns around data privacy and user safety, including personal and sensitive information such as user habits and physiological characteristics.
- Safety of virtual assets from financial crimes and identity theft.
- The well-being of content moderators who may face physical and mental health hazards from prolonged exposure to VR headsets and content.
- Regulatory ambiguity, especially policy gaps with respect to the definition of ownership, data privacy and user interactions.
Implications for the third-party T&S services market
Enterprises are increasingly outsourcing T&S services to match exponential growth in user content, and as the metaverse expands, the T&S services market will surge as well.
The T&S services is among the fastest-growing segment of the Business Process Services market, expected to reach US$15-20 billion by 2024.
The market is expected to grow 35-38% through 2024 and accelerate to 60-68% growth beyond 2024 as technology and infrastructure advance beyond the nascent stage.
In this dynamic market, T&S service providers can leverage their expertise to proactively help enterprises develop risk mitigation strategies. The growth potential of the metaverse T&S market will attract new service providers, spur specialisation, and give rise to ecosystem partnerships to address the complexity of policy advisory, technological expertise, process acumen, and localisation of services that the evolving metaverse will demand.
