Small and medium-sized Spanish companies specialized in the metaverse will invoice 35 million euros in 2023, which represents an increase of almost 35% compared to the previous year, according to data from the Spanish Association for Digitalization (DigitalES).
The employers conclude in a study on the metaverse that the turnover of the sector of Spanish SMEs dedicated to this field grew by 27% in 2022, to 26 million euroswhile the number of projects developed by companies increased from 18 million in 2021 to 24 million in the following year.
According to the report, that analyzes 43 Spanish companiesin the country there is a clear interest in the development of the metaverse and companies are dedicating innovative and economic efforts around it.
In this sense, the general director of the Accenture Media Industry and coordinator of the study’s working group, Álvaro Manzano, has indicated in statements to EFE that Spain is one of the countries with “greater maturity” in developing new metaverse experiencessince 70% of large companies have their own department dedicated to this technology and extended reality (XR).
Within the sample collected for the study, the enterprise standard XR is an SME made up of between 10 and 15 employees, whose main activities are the development of digital worlds for clients and virtual reality (VR) experiences.
On the other hand, large companies often have departments of about 25 employees and they focus on consultancy work, digital identity (creation of avatars, privacy and management of personal portfolios) and training in XR.
In both types of company, the most common profiles They are programmer, Unity game engine developer, 3D artist, user interface designer, and augmented reality developer.
Refering to geographical distributionmost of the companies analyzed are based in Madrid (22) or Barcelona (9), although this ecosystem is distributed throughout the national territory, also highlighting the concentration in Valencia (4) and Zaragoza (3).
Spanish projects
The XR industry in Spain, says the report, focuses mainly on the sale to other companies (B2B) and it operates mainly at the national level, although the consumer sales model (B2C) is growing slightly in large companies.
Although a few years ago sales were concentrated in the videogames and the audiovisual worldthe sectors for which the most work is currently done are tourism and heritage, banking and insurance, and sports and culture.
Particularly in large companies, Manzano pointed out, the projects developed for the sectors of industry and health.
The objectives that these projects usually seek go through attract new audiencestraining, presentation of new products, holding events and creating new channels of interaction and communication.
Although most of the sector operates mainly at the national level, in terms of exports, the projects “brand Spain” they mainly travel to the United States, France, Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands. In addition, 10.7% of the companies in the study export their products to Latin America.
ethical future
Looking to the future, the coordinator of the working group has indicated that sustainability “is an aspect that must be embedded in any new project that takes place in the metaverse”.
He has added that the rest of the points that are part of the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development, such as identity, diversity, inclusion and security.
“In this way, aspects such as the energy consumption derived from the intensive use of AI and the chain of blocks (blockchain) can be cushioned through a optimal experience design”has stated.
Another challenge facing the sector is the gender paritysince currently only 20% of professionals in immersive technologies are women, a trend “that is creeping” from the video game sector.
However, Manzano has pointed out that in Spain the x-ray “can be different”with women leading new divisions of large companies such as Telefónica, Microsoft or Meta.
