Business and Revenue Models of the Metaverse in Indonesia's Digital Economy

This paper examines the business and revenue models of the metaverse and assesses their viability within Indonesia's digital economy. Its purpose is to move the discussion beyond promotional forecasts by asking how value is actually created, delivered, and captured in immersive virtual environments, and which of those mechanisms fit Indonesian market conditions. The study applies a literature review combined with an analysis of public data and documented Indonesian cases, using the Business Model Canvas and revenue model typologies as analytical frames. The literature synthesis identifies seven revenue mechanisms: sales of virtual goods and non-fungible tokens, virtual real estate, advertising and brand experiences, subscriptions and paid access, gaming and play to earn mechanics, business to business services such as training and digital twins, and platform commissions on third party transactions. The Indonesian case analysis covers Telkom's metaNesia platform, the Nusameta ecosystem developed by WIR Group together with state owned banks BRI, BNI, and Mandiri, and the social metaverse Jagat. The results show that Indonesia possesses strong demand side fundamentals, including 221.56 million internet users in 2024 and the largest digital economy in Southeast Asia, yet the revenue models that stalled were those dependent on speculative asset sales and headset based immersion, while models anchored in business services, brand marketing budgets, and mobile first social experiences proved more durable. The novelty of this study lies in mapping each global revenue mechanism onto Indonesian readiness factors and documented local cases, producing a viability ordering that managers and policymakers can use when deciding where metaverse investment in Indonesia is commercially defensible and where it remains speculative.