Want a $1 Million Job in Crypto? How About Chief Metaverse Officer – They Are all the Rage

Metaverse technology has continued to be the rage among big-name brands that are now dolling out million-dollar paychecks to so-called “chief metaverse officers” to think up their metaverse adoption strategy. 

According to a Bloomberg report, brands such as Disney, Proctor and Gamble (P&G), LVMH, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Spanish telecom carrier Telefonica SA, and wedding-registry retailer Crate & Barrel are among giants that have invested in a CMO of recent. 

These firms, while each having modified job descriptions for their CMO, are all making the appointment with a view not to be left behind in the adoption of the emerging technology. Hamza Khan, the co-lead of metaverse efforts at management and consulting firm McKinsey & Co., said:

“Brands need to get closer to their customers, and the metaverse is a channel to do that. Compared to the early days of e-commerce, this time around brands are a lot more active, a lot earlier.”

McKinsey estimates that annual global spending related to the virtual world could reach as much as $5 trillion by 2030. Analysis by Gartner Inc. supports the position that the metaverse is the next big innovation with its forecast that one in four people will spend at least an hour a day in the metaverse within a few years. 

Despite the “digital FOMO” trend, companies are still treading cautiously in their metaverse adoption as the sector is yet to prove itself to be a big earner. Bloomberg found that it is presently not uncommon to see newly named chief metaverse officers having additional responsibilities in order not to constrain company resources, although their paychecks still run into millions in some cases. 

Companies already rolling out metaverse adoption strategies

Companies globally have not stopped at eyeing metaverse technology, some have already initiated moves to establish a significant presence in the virtual world. So far in 2022, the number of metaverse-related trademark filings made by companies has exceeded the total number of such filings made in the whole of 2021 as reported by Fortune. 

Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook completed its rebrand to Meta this year and has pivoted its business focus to metaverse technology, albeit to a rocky start. Others like Walmart, Starbucks, and McDonald’s to mention a few have formed partnerships with metaverse-native companies to launch NFT collections or other metaverse-related initiatives. 

All these strides the metaverse sector has been making have been despite a broader market price slump that has seen the crypto market capitalization drop below $1 trillion from its all-time high of close to $3 trillion.