BC Business
metaverse
In a recent survey by Mustel Group, roughly half of B.C. residents surveyed said they knew about the metaverse and were likely to participate in it.
The term “metaverse” is everywhere these days, largely thanks to Facebook’s rebranding to Meta and the social media giant’s pledge to focus on developing its new namesake.
So what is the metaverse?
To hear some people tell it, the metaverse is simply an evolution of the internet: a shift from the two-dimensional experience of text and flat images to a three-dimensional, multi-sensory world, achieved through a convergence of technologies such as augmented and virtual reality. It doesn’t quite exist yet but is being built by companies such as Epic Games, Microsoft Corp., Nvidia Corp. and, of course, Meta.
Always curious to gauge public awareness of such hot topics, Mustel Group polled 500 British Columbians on behalf of BCBusiness to ask if they’d heard of the metaverse—and if so, whether they intend to participate in it.
About half of B.C. residents surveyed were aware of the metaverse before the recent poll. That figure jumped to roughly two thirds among 18- to 34-year-olds and dropped to just over one in five among those 65 years of age and older.
Males were slightly more likely than females to have heard of the metaverse, as were those with a post-secondary education versus those who had completed high school or less.
When it comes to the public’s intention to take part in the metaverse, the findings are similar. Just under half of survey respondents said they were likely to participate, with those younger than 55 somewhat more inclined.
“I was quite surprised at how many people, young and old, are familiar with the concept, given that it’s only become mainstream over the last year or so, and how many are likely to take part at some point in the future,” says Josh O’Neill, general manager of Mustel Group.
The survey took place by phone from February 23 to March 14. A total of 500 British Columbians 18 years of age or older were polled. The results have been statistically weighted to match census data on the basis of age, gender and region. The margin of error for a sample size of 500 is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.