Unless you've been living under a rock for the last several months, it's likely that you've come across your fair share of headlines about the metaverse. Whether or not you find yourself fascinated by this virtual-first world, there's no denying that investment opportunities in this space abound and will likely only grow in the years ahead. In this segment of Backstage Pass, recorded on Jan. 10, Fool.com contributors Jason Hall and Rachel Warren discuss.
Jason Hall: I saw one on Wall Street Journal article that was talking about Microsoft having a bunch of developers that have left to go to Meta and to other companies. CNBC piece was talking about tech giants and the Apple is probably the one that's going to lease benefit from the metaverse, etc.
Rachel, I want you to go first on this question here. Do you think the metaverse has been overrated by investors or under-appreciated? Let's get a stock out of this too to support your thesis.
Rachel Warren: This is an interesting question because I feel like suddenly it's all we've been talking about the last several months is the metaverse.
Jason Hall: That's because all we've been talking about the past seven months is the metaverse.
Rachel Warren: Which is great. But I think to some extent, there's all of this investor hype around it, but I don't think it's always because investors fully understand some of the technologies and processes that the metaverse will contain.
I think it's a lot of hype around an idea and not always so much around a specific product or service. I don't think it's been overrated or under-appreciated so much as I think some investors aren't sure what to make of it.
I think broadly besides some of the overall volatility we've been seeing with tech companies, some of what we've been seeing with Facebook, for example, now Meta Platforms, this is a company that's rebranded itself as a metaverse stock.
I think some investors aren't assured now how to properly value it, what is its place going to be in the metaverse? You've got more and more companies that are entering this space. What is that going to look like? Facebook is one company I think of immediately.
I think like a lot of other people, when I'm pondering this space. For me, I think the metaverse will and does contain a lot of opportunities for long-term investors.
I think it's a trend we're going to be seeing more and more people where they are investing in an idea rather than a concrete product or software. I think to some extent, the metaverse will have staying power.
But I also think there's this aspect to it, where it's this rush toward the newest, and latest, and greatest shiny thing. I wonder what that's going to look like in five years, 10 years? Will people still be talking about the metaverse? Or is there going to be something else that's taken the forefront of people's attention.
