The metaverse is widely regarded as the next frontier in digital commerce, with businesses across industries spending millions of dollars to position themselves as market leaders. While it offers clear opportunities for businesses, the metaverse also presents unique legal challenges. This alert highlights a few key legal issues all businesses should consider before making the leap.
What is the Metaverse?
At its core, the metaverse is the next generation of the Internet. Built largely on decentralized, blockchain technology instead of centralized servers, it consists of immersive, three-dimensional experiences with vibrant digital marketplaces, persistent and traceable digital assets, and a strong social component. As consumers flock to the metaverse platforms and tech companies create next-generation consumer electronics that will make the metaverse more accessible, the ways in which the metaverse can assist the senior living industry are already beginning to emerge.
The Business Case for the Senior Living Industry
The metaverse offers unique opportunities for the senior living industry. Consider the virtual tour used in marketing efforts, and reimagine it as a chance for facilities to offer prospective residents a chance to interact with facility amenities and personnel. From a basic level, the ability to market the metaverse as an amenity has value in itself. On a larger scale, it could lead to the development of a hybrid home health and senior living community offering, with the metaverse providing that community setting.
While the business opportunities are clear, the metaverse additionally offers the possibility of improving resident care. For example, the metaverse gives faraway family members the opportunity to connect with residents in a setting more engaging than a phone call or video chat – a critical alternative in light of the social isolation issues highlighted in the pandemic.
Before making a leap into a metaverse platform, businesses should consider these six legal issues:
Ready to Enter?
The metaverse poses a tremendous opportunity for businesses to connect directly with consumers in an interactive way that was considered science fiction just a few years ago. But like every new frontier, technological or otherwise, there are legal and regulatory hurdles to consider and overcome. Some are familiar, while others are novel. The lawyers in ArentFox Schiff offer a cross-disciplinary perspective to help producers, distributors, retailers, and their partners in the senior living industry come up with practical strategies to maximize the value of the opportunities created by the metaverse.
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