ITWeb, in partnership with KnowBe4, conducted a survey on the Metaverse during June 2022.
The objective of the survey was to gain insight into what corporate South Africa thinks about the Metaverse, NFTs, Blockchain and Web3.
A total of 176 responses were captured, with 60% of respondents being at executive or middle management level. While 38% of respondents came from the IT sector, the remaining 62% come from a wide range of major industry sectors, with finance, government and telecoms being the best represented.
Here are some of the key findings:
Just over half (54%) of respondents say they have plans to participate in the
Metaverse.
The majority of the survey’s respondents (82%) say their business doesn’t
use blockchain technology. Only 18% say that they do.
On a more positive note, 83% say that their company plans to deploy
blockchain technology.
Asked whether they were excited about the opportunities of Web 3.0: 57%
said yes, they were a proponent of a more decentralised future Internet; 26%
said they didn’t know what it was about; and 15% said they didn’t believe the
technology catered for the hyped-up promises of Web 3.0.
Respondents were asked if they were personally interested in connecting with
others via some virtual world in the Metaverse. Just over half (53%)
responded ‘yes’, 39% said they were neutral and 8% said they weren’t
interested.
When asked to identify their personal stance towards the crypto ecosystem,
respondents ranked the following statements:• I have hopes that the technology space will develop (30%)
• I have invested in cryptocurrencies before or am still actively involved
(20%)
• I’m concerned about the impact crypto mining has on the environment
(14%)
• There are too many scams to get involved (14%)
Asked if they were considering the Metaverse, Web 3.0 or Blockchain in their
security plans, 27% said ‘yes’, 26% said ‘no’ and 30% of respondents said
they planned to update their security strategy. 14% said they had well defined
security controls for these emerging technologies.
Respondents who replied ‘yes’ to the above question were then asked to
identify the type of participation they were considering. Collaboration tools
and/or meetings were selected by 29% of respondents; education by 25%;
investment by 22%; and advertising by 19%.
The same pool of ‘yes’ respondents were also asked to identify the type of
use cases. A third (33%) said payments and/or international payments; 27%
said secure information exchange; 17% said supply chain management; and
13% said investments.