Virtual reality is an emerging technology that has offered a new way to see the world. This blog will walk you through ways on how VR in real life can help grow your business.
According to Markets and Markets, the market for virtual reality was valued at $5.12 billion in 2017. The industry contemplates that by 2023, the market will grow to a whopping $34.08 billion, which equates to a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 33.95% during the forecast period.
Today, most of the industries are employing VR technology in real-life effectively in order to grow their business. People have clearly expressed their intrigue in virtual reality, especially millennials, and we should not ignore virtual reality’s growth and potential, but rather embrace the change. While many people have had an opportunity to experience VR in real life, very few are aware of the profitable business side of it and the reason behind why they should adopt the technology.
Now the question is: how can a business use virtual reality to drive profits? Let’s walk through it together to find out.
Monetizing Business by Implementing VR in Real Life
Location-based (LB) VR
Location-based virtual reality enables the user to immerse themselves in the environment of unique places such as shopping malls, cafes, movie theatres, museums, etc. In the United States, location-based VR continues to grow and turn profits. Greenlight Insights, a well-known market research firm specializing in VR and AR, projects that spending on VR hardware, software, content, and services away from home entertainment venues will reach $1.2 billion by 2021 in its market report.
Location-based VR is a profitable and promising path for monetizing. VR technology matters because the better the technology, the more people will engage with it, and more engagement leads to greater revenue. By capitalizing on cutting-edge technologies for location-based virtual reality, companies can deliver amazing virtual experiences and watch their revenues soar.
Product Placement
Product placement has long been a part of VR technology, mainly in the form of native ads. Product placement is indeed an emerging solution that eliminates traditional pop-up commercials that distract users from a beautiful VR experience and replace it with modest advertising.
This model is widely adopted and considered to be exciting due to two main reasons. First, it helps brands to be precisely what customers love the most, such as how to use their services, how to benefit from it, etc. Second, it helps app developers to spread more of the free content rather than the paid ones.
Freemium
Freemium is a business model that provides primary services for free of cost, whereas to unlock more advanced features, users need to pay a determined amount.
Through this approach, companies can build relationships with their customers by offering them basic level services for free which gives them an opportunity to see the value that the services can provide. By informing clients about the benefits that VR can provide, it makes them more likely to pay for the more advanced services.
The freemium method allows you to monetize VR based games, VR apps, etc. If your services are good enough to obtain users for the basic level, people will likely want to see the full capabilities of what you can offer and be willing to pay for full functionality.
In-app Purchases (IAP)
In-app purchase is a pretty common business strategy to monetize VR. In-app purchases offer additional paid services from inside an application on a mobile device.
The app owner markets the app to upgrade for the paid version where a lot of additional content/features can be unlocked at an extra charge. This strategy lets you monetize your content and is the most money-making. Still, at the very same time, this approach needs to be carried out well to get good user reviews, and a high rating in application stores, otherwise, you may encounter a pitfall.
Ads Through VR Apps
The advertising method in VR technology refers to using different ads by VR application developers to reach a specific target user. This approach is affirmed to be the most beneficial from a production team’s point of view because once the app is installed, the ads kick in that drives crazy revenue.
The company needs to perform this strategy cautiously as it requires the correct balancing between users’ trouble, excitement, and above all, willingness to click on the ads. The common practice most of the businessmen follow is they combine this monetization strategy with freemium and in-app purchases.
Commonly, users deal with advertising in exchange for an additional advantage or accessing premium content in the app free of cost. Nowadays, services are giving an option to the customers to pay their way out of ads. YouTube Red is a very relatable example of this as YouTube has created an ad-free subscription service through this.
Conclusion
Virtual reality in real life is arguably a futuristic technology and used in almost all business sectors. The ways mentioned earlier for monetizing from VR work for every business can surely turn your apps into a money-making machine. The right strategy needs to be chosen for your business to benefit from VR tech to fulfill users’ expectations that will lead your business towards the utmost success.
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