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SAP Expands Into Metaverse in India 

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SAP’s initiative on metaverse in India is centered on delivering revolutionary experiences to customers, particularly the digital-first audiences, through an immersive cloud platform.

In a recent analysis by Bloomberg considering data from Newzoo, IDC, PWC, Statista, and Two Circle, the global metaverse revenue opportunity is forecasted to reach $800 billion in 2024, a substantial growth from 2020’s $500 billion revenue. Of the revenue opportunity forecasted, more than $400 billion is anticipated to come from online game makers and gaming hardware; $200 billion from live entertainment businesses such as films, live music, and sports, and the remainder from social media.

In Asia, the metaverse trend is gaining momentum with Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, and India taking the top five spots, respectively, following the dominant US, based on a report by DappRadar, a provider of a platform that tracks decentralized applications across 10+ blockchains. The report revealed that there are over 500,000 Indian users, including those from Mumbai and New Delhi as the top two cities that have indicated an interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and metaverse projects.

Recognizing the burgeoning metaverse market in India, SAP announced a new initiative involving an engaging ‘cloud on wheels’ platform to drive Indian businesses’ cloud transformation and tap the ‘digital-first audiences’. The SAP metaverse project intends to enhance customers’ digital transformation journey, reanalyze business processes, and improve business results by leveraging the portfolio of RISE with SAP.

SAP’s Take on the Metaverse

German software enterprise SAP earlier stated its take on the Metaverse as a business opportunity for retailers to convert Gen Z consumers into new customers. Spurred from the shopping experiences of gamers buying virtual clothing and armory for their avatars in Fortnite or Call of Duty, for instance, metaverse’s capability to merge physical with virtual has already been tested by luxury global brands Ralph Lauren and Fendi giving metaverse tours of their physical flagship stores. SAP’s latest accelerator programm in New York also included startups that delve into metaverse to deliver unique shopping experiences.

Robin Barrett Wilson, SAP executive advisor, fashion and retail strategy, commented earlier this year:

“It’s going to make retail exciting. Shopping is really about an experience. We would rather pay for an experience than an item. So, it’s really not about touching and feeling the product. It’s about going into a store to have an experience.”

Christian Klein, SAP CEO, had also shared that the company’s large partners have expressed interest to collaborate with SAP on exploring the metaverse, specifically, to look into its business-to-business (B2B) use like learning and commerce. He mentioned:

“I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about this in the near term.”

Expanding Into Metaverse in India

Today, SAP has identified India as an ideal market for integrating metaverse in businesses. Kulmeet Bawa, President & Managing Director, SAP Indian Subcontinent, said:

“Metaverse is a representation of the current experience economy that provides an experiential platform like never-before. By leveraging it, we hope to revolutionize various elements of our customer experience and build a network of sustainable cloud companies within a truly digital universe. Our ambition is to engage with thousands of organizations through this platform over the course of this year.”

SAP expanding into the metaverse is the next logical venture as an early adopter of digital twin technology, which is a virtual representation of a physical object or system. The tech giant’s initiative intends to provide a metaverse experience platform that would enable Indian enterprises to have an outside-in view of SAP solutions including RISE with SAP, Procurement, Customer and People Experience cloud offerings according to their business profile and industry. 

Furthermore, the metaverse platform will enable customers to create digital avatars to virtually witness ways to accelerate their cloud migration and digital transformation. Aside from directly engaging SAP cloud offerings relevant to their business needs, customers can also connect and share experiences with other users of the platform. 

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