by The Hutch Report Monday, Jan 17, 2022 – 8:21
Some call it cyberspace and some call it the metaverse.It includes virtual reality, augmented reality and a growing collection of virtual worlds.You can think about it as an extension of the internet or essentially stepping into the internet.The big brands are entering fast
Wherever you have a virtual world, you are going to have a virtual economy.There is money to be made in these virtual worlds and it is translating into real world riches.It is therefore no surprise to see a line up of well known brands jumping at the chance the take their share.
The thing is, they all seem to have their own idea of what the metaverse is.
Facebook (AKA Meta) is imagining virtual houses that you can invite your friends to and hang out.Microsoft is imagining virtual meeting rooms that could be used to train or chat with remote workers.Alibaba has a trademark for what they imagine to be Ali Metaverse, but Taobao and Dingding Metaverse are also joining.Another participant in creating its own metaverse is Sony, which has invested $1 billion to make it possible.
The clothing chain, Zara, has chosen Zepeto as the metaverse to launch its first collection of virtual garments.
But one area that is booming among all the others is real estate.The idea of purchasing virtual land may seem quite bizarre but there have been significant investments pouring into this sector in the past few months.
The business of virtual real estate
The Hong Kong office of the professional services firm Price Waterhouse Coopers recently purchased some imaginary real estate on The Sandbox.Although the cost of its land asset was undisclosed, it has been noted on multiple crypto-currency blogs that PwC’s Hong Kong wing intends to construct a Web 3.0 advisory hub to facilitate a new generation of professional services, including accounting and taxation.
The Metaverse Group, a real estate company focused on the metaverse economy, reportedly bought a piece of land in Decentraland, another virtual platform, for US$2.43 million.
Axie Infinity, a virtual gaming world reportedly sold nine of their land parcels for the equivalent of US$1.5 million.
Andrew Kiguel, CEO of tokens.com recently paid nearly $2.5 million on a patch of land in Decentraland.According to Kiguel, “Prices have gone up 400% to 500% in the last few months.”
There is no limit to how much real estate could be created in the metaverse.That opens the door to services that understand the value of what is being bought and sold.
The data is entirely out there, completely transparent, and entirely open to everyone.But that doesn’t mean that everyone will come to the same conclusions.Companies such as Metaverse Property are currently positioning themselves as brokers of the metaverse in order to provide some clarity.Others such as Whale Analytica , an NFT blockchain data analytics company, is currently building a valuation engine in order to help prospective buyers navigate these virtual worlds, in order to find parcels of land worth purchasing.Co-founder and data scientist Simone Casale-Brunet says, “We have all the data.What is missing, and what we are currently building, are the tools that can help simplify buy/sell decisions based on the real value of a property in the metaverse.”
Time will tell how far the metaverse expands and what these virtual populations will look like, but for now, there seems to be nothing but opportunity as far as the creative mind can imagine.0 .
