How to make money on extended reality?

Mobile phones and communicators equipped with cameras and GPS have given rise to one of the most impressive achievements of human progress: the so-called augmented reality location technologies (AR). A phone that understands where its owner is and which direction he is facing can show the owner digital content that complements the world around him. For example, old photographs taken from the place where the tourist is, or a suitable article from Wikipedia.

There are quite a few examples of the successful use of extended reality technologies, but they can hardly be called revolutionary. In addition, AR application developers have not yet learned how to make money from them. It would be a shame if such an incredible opportunity would be used only for excursions or passive advertising (active users of AR technologies are realtors).

The billion dollar question: how to make money on extended reality? AR is a kind of search, only the query is not a keyword, but a point on the map. The person presents his location and asks for something interesting in return. To make money on search, you just need to learn how to sell keywords. More precisely, key square meters.

Imagine a person looking at Pushkin Square (or Times Square) through the viewfinder of an iPhone. As soon as the phone realizes that its owner is looking at a house with such and such a number, it will present him with a steaming cup of espresso, or a discount coupon, or a movie schedule, depending on what is available in this house. Will the owner of a cinema or cafe agree to participate in an auction for a few meters of sidewalk? More likely. And if his establishment is located in Times Square, the amounts can be exorbitant.

Existing platforms for AR application developers (Layar, Wikitude, etc.) are open to everyone and do not impose strict geographical restrictions on the operation of applications, perhaps because the market is not yet developed at all. But someday everything will inevitably change.

Firstly, no virtual reality will accommodate all the content from everyone. Secondly, small business owners are already willing to pay for geo-targeted advertising. Finally, the AR virtual world will make it possible to combine conventional advertising, game dynamics and the sale of virtual goods - in other words, combine the capabilities of Groupon, Zynga and Foursquare.

Virtual worlds with terrestrial geography from which rent can be collected are bound to be a pretty place. Owners will spend money from the sale of expensive land in the center of large cities and on highways on attractive content for poorly selling areas (the Sahara Desert, the residential outskirts of Moscow and another 99.99% of the planet’s surface) in order to lure users into their world.

This is unlikely to happen quickly. But only when this happens will extended reality deserve its big name.

The whole world is not enough