Well, we’ve seen this before.
In the 1990s, custom websites were all the rage … and then the market crashed, the dot-coms collapsed, and a tiny search engine called Google rose from the ashes.
In the 2000s, brands rushed to create profiles on Myspace, Tumblr, and Live Spaces. Those sites disappeared, paving the way for the meteoric rise of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Now, the metaverse. Mark Zuckerberg’s multi-billion-dollar Meta empire has been on the wrong side of the news recently – poor user numbers, mass layoffs (MarketWatch) and overall confusion (NY Times, subscription req’d).
In fact, we think Zuckerberg’s efforts will only amount to a miniscule piece of the broader metaverse movement. Like social networks circa 2004, the metaverse is just getting started. The metaverse is dead… long live the metaverse!
- The Medical Metaverse Is Already Here But What Does That Mean For Pharma? (Endpoints News, free subscription req’d) Our own Abid Rahman and Jeff Greene of EVERSANA INTOUCH share what’s happening right now in the medical metaverse and why they believe pharma marketers shouldn’t focus too much on Meta.
- The Future Of Meta Report (Insider Intelligence) Quick read on Meta’s metaverse prospects, which the author says are still positive for the long-term. In fact, the company may lose its grip on the VR headset market – a sign that competitors from Sony to Apple think Zuckerberg’s on to something.
- NFTs: What The New Kid On The Blockchain Means For Healthcare (PharmExec) Our colleagues at GCI Health say blockchain technology may be of more interest to healthcare than, say, a plot of land on Horizon Worlds. Health advocacy groups like the Movember campaign have used NFTs to raise disease awareness, for example.
- You Can Now Try On And Buy Glasses With A Snapchat AR Filter (The Verge) If VR is the rapid hare, then AR is the tortoise slowly becoming a ubiquitous part of our digital lives. Brands are adding AR capabilities and features to their apps, which will touch the margins of our industry and perhaps go much deeper. Snap, one of the original ambassadors for AR, is partnering with Amazon Fashion to bring some wow-factor to the eyewear category.
- Promise Of The Metaverse In Cardiovascular Health (European Heart Journal) Medical futurist Bertalan Mesko notes the rebranding of Meta has ignited interest in medical applications for the metaverse: “The use of virtual reality (VR) has been analysed in evidence-based studies in niche areas, but the metaverse offers so much more: a complex, virtual realm where people can communicate with each other and build relationships. This is something worth considering in the delivery of healthcare.”
- Billions Being Spent In Metaverse Land Grab (BBC News) On the other hand, maybe Zuck’s aspirations are right after all? Nearly $2 billion has been spent on virtual land so far, according to the BBC, split across hundreds of metaverse platforms. Brands are building restaurants, shops, and the world’s first metaverse pharmacy (Cryptoflies), so it’s not unreasonable to think pharma and medical device manufacturers will stake their claims soon.
- You Can Pay For Telemedicine Appointments With Crypto (U.Today) Citaldoc, a popular telehealth platform across Latin America, accepted its first crypto payment for the service. It’s a big deal: many sovereign currencies here are so inflationary, citizens have adopted cryptocurrencies like Cardano as a “safer” medium of trade.