Snap’s head of luxury is touting the promise of augmented reality (AR) to show off branded products such as clothing.
Snap’s Geoffrey Perez made the remarks during the Bloomberg Technology Summit in London, the outlet reported Wednesday (Sept. 28).
“Every day we have 250 million people engaging with augmented reality on our platform,” Perez said, wearing a pair of Snapchat’s AR spectacles, per the report. “Not just to try dresses on, but also jewelry and makeup. This is how we see engaging with the real world in the future.”
See also: Snap CEO Firm on Long-Term Plays, AR
Snap works with retailers to create virtual try-on tools, and company CEO Evan Spiegel has spoken of eventually developing an “AR enterprise business,” charging startup and transaction fees to merchants that employ the technology, the report stated.
Earlier this year, Spiegel said AR makes more sense to him than focusing on the metaverse, noting that he didn’t even want that term uttered in the Snap offices.
Read more: Snap Boss Evan Spiegel Disses Metaverse in Favor of Augmenting Real World
He argued most people would rather spend time in the real world — and possibly an augmented version of that world — than spend time in a virtual environment provided by the metaverse.
“The reason why we don’t use that word is because it’s pretty ambiguous and hypothetical,” Speigel said in April. “Just ask a room of people how to define it, and everyone’s definition is totally different.”
People might have other reasons for avoiding the metaverse, PYMNTS reported last week, as there is growing evidence of a problem known as cybersickness.
See more: Consumers Are Getting Sick of the Metaverse — Really
It’s the digital equivalent of seasickness that appears to be far more common with people wearing virtual reality headsets.
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