PUBLISHED DATE: 2025-08-13 20:37:36

HFS Horizons Report: Metaverse Services Providers, 2023

March 2023

Authors:

Excerpt for Publicis Sapient

"The metaverse has evolved rapidly over the last year, creating a whole new dimension for immersive customer and employee experiences."
— Phil Fersht, CEO and Chief Analyst, HFS Research

"2023 must be a big year for proving value. We expect metaverse services to come under firm pressure to deliver real ROI in an increasing majority of enterprise use cases. Enterprises are ready to invest, with 47% committing to 10%–20% growth in metaverse investments over the next two years and a further 40% planning to add 5%–10% to metaverse budgets. To match this, they need service providers to upskill and scale up."
— David Cushman, Executive Research Leader, Emerging Technology, HFS Research

Contents

  1. Introduction and key findings
  2. Research methodology
  3. Horizons results: Metaverse services providers, 2023
  4. Publicis Sapient profile: Metaverse services, 2023
  5. HFS Research authors
  6. Demographics, guides, and definitions

1. Introduction and Key Findings

The term “metaverse” is regularly used as marketing shorthand for any virtual space or augmented reality in which users interact with digitally generated or enhanced environments and other users, often via digital versions of themselves. Enterprises can work with this definition to develop better virtualized customer, employee, and partner experiences and to upskill in preparation for the needs of future customers. Providers were also asked to consider the future direction of the metaverse—where it becomes an open and interoperable driver of an emerging business paradigm disrupted by decentralization—and the impact of customer control of their own data.

The value proposition for metaverse services is moving from a “return on learning” toward what HFS describes as value across three horizons:

This inaugural HFS Horizons report for metaverse services examines the capabilities of 18 services providers and management consultancies to paint the supplier landscape across the three HFS Horizons. Providers were assessed across a defined series of criteria:

This report also includes detailed profiles of each service provider, outlining their placement, provider facts, and detailed strengths and opportunities.

Executive Summary

  1. An estimated $1 trillion metaverse economy opportunity awaits, but HFS estimates the 18 service providers in this report are only capturing around $2.45 billion of it. To start closing the gap, 2023 must be a big year for proving value. We expect metaverse services to come under firm pressure to deliver real ROI in an increasing majority of enterprise use cases. Enterprises are ready to invest, with 47% committing to 10%–20% growth in metaverse investments over the next two years and a further 40% planning to add 5%–10% to metaverse budgets. To match this, they need service providers to upskill and scale up.
  2. Commitment to the metaverse is not evenly distributed. Many service providers are relabeling or reorganizing existing functions under a metaverse umbrella rather than adding significant new investment. This is true of personnel and revenue recognition. Additional investment is easier to identify in new offerings, roadmaps, and partner ecosystems.
  3. Enterprises should push their providers for the application of robust value frameworks to focus on outcomes. Many of the leading service providers in this report have them readily available. There is no need to experiment outside of these frameworks. The shortest routes to value are through CX, EX, and, in the industrial metaverse, through digital twins—impacting training, product and service development, and the supply chain. Digital twins represent our best-yet data visualization technology.
  4. The best near- and mid-term opportunities come from adding metaverse capabilities and approaches rather than wholly replacing old ways of working, living, buying, and making with the new. As with most new technologies, the opportunity is in combining the best available solutions to meet specific needs.
  5. Many service providers are compiling technology stacks in reaction to customer need. While they stick to this, it is hard to see how they can envisage and therefore shape a future state to lead their clients toward. Customers are looking for a leader in unfamiliar territory.
  6. The metaverse of VR and AR and immersive experience is being widely embraced by both enterprises and service providers; the decentralized, data-challenging reality of Web3, less so. The most mature offerings embrace both. Service providers must be braver in outlining both the threats and the opportunities associated with the Web3-powered, decentralized, and interoperable version of the metaverse as it looms ever larger.
  7. The most mature metaverse services identified in this report—in EX, CX, and digital twins—are coming out of the innovation lab to be integrated into implementable enterprise-scale elements of core offerings.

The Metaverse Has Moved from Thought Experiment to Value

Current value creation potential for enterprises ranges from least (cryptocurrencies, NFTs) to most (ecosystem play, asset tokenization, supply chain track and trace).

CEOs Have Yet to Wake Up to the Bigger Picture on Metaverse

When asked to rank the top three technologies their organizations expect to invest in over the next 12 to 18 months, CEOs and CIOs/CTOs responded as follows:

CEOs are more convinced by the nearer-term and often simpler use cases and benefits of blockchain and AR–VR than by the need to place their bets on Web3 and metaverse. Blockchain and AR–VR are technology choices, while Web3–metaverse requires buying into the process, enterprise, and cross-ecosystem benefits on offer. CIOs and CTOs are marginally more likely to see the bigger picture, but just 14% and 15% are ranking Web3 and metaverse in their top three investments in 2023.

Enterprise Appetite is Huge—But It Lacks Strategic Direction

Across all respondents, the top three technology investment priorities (ranked 1, 2, or 3) over the next 12 to 18 months are:

Investment in the range of metaverse enablers is huge. However, only a small proportion (14%) is directly related to metaverse ambitions, suggesting a strategy gap that service providers must work harder to fill. Projects involving AR and VR—and blockchain, too—should be delivered as part of a program with a clearer view on the more holistic business outcomes that the shift to metaverse can deliver. The wisest long-term view is to add 5G, IoT, and quantum to that strategic plan.

Enterprises Need Service Providers to Step Up

When asked to rate vendors’ expertise in enabling technologies on a scale of 1 to 10:

For comparison, enterprises score service providers an average of 7.7 for process automation and 8.2 for analytics. Enterprises are less convinced by the capabilities available from service providers in the nascent area of metaverse services compared to those in which service providers have a longer track record. Enterprise leaders need convincing with success beyond the ideation session.

Service Providers Lag Enterprise Investment Intent

Enterprise customers say their service provider is leveraging metaverse-enabling technologies in only 5% of cases. However, metaverse will see the biggest growth in enterprise investment:

Metaverse services revenues are projected to grow from $2.45 billion in 2022 to $2.81 billion in 2023, a 15% average growth. Headcount is expected to increase from 25,508 to 30,785 over the same period.

2. Research Methodology

The potential for metaverse in the enterprise is accelerating. This report selected 18 leading service providers and consultants offering metaverse services, based on revenue, investment, declared strategy, and market momentum. Providers were assessed on:

The assessment combined technology and services each provider is developing, applying, or partnering to deliver. Definitions of Horizon 1, 2, and 3 in the context of metaverse services are provided, outlining what is expected from qualifying vendors.

Assessment Methodology

The HFS Horizons Metaverse Services Providers, 2023 report evaluates providers across a range of dimensions to understand the Why, What, How, and So What of their metaverse services offerings. Inputs from clients, partners, and employees are augmented with analyst perspectives. The assessment dimensions include:

Metaverse Enabling Technologies and Service Capabilities

Metaverse services may comprise a menu of old and new:

HFS Horizons: What Makes a Horizon 1, 2, or 3 Provider?

Service Providers Covered in This Report

Data Sources

3. Horizons Results: Metaverse Services Providers, 2023

Summary of Providers Assessed

HFS Horizons: Metaverse Services Providers

4. Publicis Sapient Profile: Metaverse Services, 2023

Publicis Sapient: CX-led Approach and Enviable Self-Transformation

Strengths

Development Opportunities

Relevant M&A and Partnerships

Key Metaverse Services Clients

Global Metaverse Operations and Resources

Flagship Internal or Co-Developed IP—Metaverse Services

5. HFS Research Authors

6. Demographics, Guides, and Definitions

Demographics

What Do Customers Use Metaverse Service Providers For?

Guides and Definitions

This report may contain terms, abbreviations, and concepts you may not be familiar with. HFS has compiled a series of guides to help newcomers understand the implications for a new business paradigm driven by metaverse-related technologies. For more, search “metaverse” at www.hfsresearch.com

About HFS

HFS is a unique analyst organization that combines deep visionary expertise with rapid demand-side analysis of the Global 2000. Its outlook for the future is admired across the global technology and business operations industries. Its analysts are respected for their no-nonsense insights based on demand-side data and engagements with industry practitioners.

HFS Research introduced the world to terms such as “RPA” (Robotic Process Automation) in 2012 and more recently, Digital OneOffice™ and OneEcosystem™. The HFS mission is to provide visionary insight into the major innovations impacting business operations such as Automation and Process Intelligence, Blockchain, the Metaverse, and Web3. HFS has deep business practices across all key industries, IT and business services, sustainability, and engineering.

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