Asian Tech Press (Oct 26) -- Most metaverse business projects will fail by 2025, according to Matthew Ball, chief analyst at research firm Canalys.

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, now CEO of Meta Platforms Inc., has identified the metaverse as the next frontier of technology and the company's main business for the future, and said Meta will invest tens of billions of dollars to build the metaverse over the next few years.

However, Matthew Ball, chief analyst at research firm Canalys, was not optimistic about Zuckerberg's big bet on the metaverse.

At the company's Channels Forum in Barcelona, Ball said, "Is the metaverse the next digital frontier or an overhyped money pit?"

"Tens of billions of dollars have already been invested, costs and delays to Meta's own progress is a barometer," Ball added.

Ball said, "We're in a cost-of-living crisis, people are struggling in the real world let alone in the virtual world to be able to invest in property and items and other NFTs."

The analyst did admit, however, that gaming may be successful in the meta-universe world and that some adult entertainment may help win some users, but he saw no future for them in the business sector.

Ball predicted that most of the meta-universe projects in the business sector will be closed by 2025.

Now, many technology companies, including Microsoft, Meta, Google, Nvidia, Apple and others, have been entering the meta-universe industry.

These companies have invested $177 billion in the metaverse since 2021, and by 2030, the market could be as large as $5 trillion, according to consultants from McKinsey & Company.