Within 5 years, a quarter of internet users could be spending time in the metaverse

BY 2026, 25% of people will spend at least an hour a day in the metaverse, whether for business, entertainment, education, socializing or shopping, according to Gartner. With the metaverse craze could come new business models that take digital activities even further and even include metaverse products and services.

Gartner defines a metaverse as a "collective virtual shared space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical and digital reality." The idea is to offer enhanced immersive experiences, via a multitude of devices, be it smartphones, tablets or virtual/augmented reality headsets.

Attending classrooms, attending events, buying land and building houses, all entirely virtually, is what the daily lives of millions of internet users could be like. This metaverse environment could be host to their interactions for an average of one hour a day by 2026. What's more, Gartner expects this virtual space to have its own economy, based on cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFT).

In the workplace, Gartner predicts that companies will be able to offer their employees dedicated virtual spaces for meetings, which could very well replace real premises. Also by 2026, nearly one in three companies and organizations should have products and services adapted to the metaverse.