Who are top players in Metaverse？
As a hub for new events and projects, the Metaverse could reach an $800 billion market by 2024, according to Bloomberg estimates. In the current environment, three seemingly unrelated entities, JPMorgan, McDonald’s and Manchester City, have one thing in common: they are all involved in the Metaverse.
The concept of the Metaverse is being adopted globally by different industries, institutions and governments including gaming, entertainment, arts and education, and is growing rapidly by connecting people without physical constraints, especially during the pandemic. Even Mingout, an online dating platform in India, recently launched the Metaverse experience as an alternative for users who want a dating experience but are physically constrained. An era of borders, races, and physical limitations is coming, thanks to the efforts of top players in the Metaverse.
Decentraland
Decentraland is one of the most well-known Metaverse projects in the crypto industry, launched in February 2020, with over 300,000 monthly active users. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, Decentraland allows users to connect their accounts to their personal crypto wallets for a full gaming experience. Users can buy and sell virtual real estate and other collectibles using the platform’s native token, MANA, which currently has a market cap of about $4.5 billion. Parcels are digital land units on the platform, sold as NFTs. Cheaper parcels cost around 5,000 MANA, or about $12,500.
Decentraland has attracted investment from many large companies. For example, JPMorgan Chase opened a lounge in Decentraland named after Onyx, which is an Ethereum-based blockchain service; Samsung Electronics re-mapped its Manhattan flagship store in Decentraland; Sotheby’s has a virtual gallery; Coca-Cola Had a rooftop party in Decentraland.
Sandbox
Sandbox is also an early successful Metaverse project, which is developed by Hong Kong game developer Animoca Brands, with over 40 million downloads and 1 million monthly active users. Sandbox is built on the Ethereum and it’s a community-centric Metaverse. Sandbox has issued SAND, the native cryptocurrency with a market value of about $3.3 billion. The digital real estate (LAND) on the Sandbox is in the form of NFT, players can profit by buying, selling or renting the LAND. LAND owners and SAND tokens have rights in the Sandbox Decentralized Autonomy (DAO), which can decide and govern the future of the platform. In addition, Sandbox offers users great freedom to create and invent their own games and worlds.
Sandbox has been recognized by a number of leading global intellectual property owners, including the final Fantasy series owner, Japanese video game company Square Enix, roller coaster tycoon owner Atari, Smurfs, and SM Entertainment, one of the largest K-pop music organizations. SoftBank also invested $93 million in Sandbox in December. Recently, Animoca Brands and K-pop agent Cube formed a joint venture called AniCube Entertainment to bring K-pop artists into Sandbox while building a new music Metaverse.
Zepeto
Zepeto is one of the most famous Asian metaverses on the market, which is launched in 2018 by South Korean internet giant Naver, it has 20 million monthly active users as of this year. Last year, Zepeto revealed that 90% of its users are from outside South Korea, and 80% of them are teenagers.
Zepeto is derived from South Korean selfie app SNOW, which offers users great freedom to customize their avatars with regularly updated hairstyles, facial expressions and outfits. Zepeto users can interact through avatars, shoot short TikTok-like videos, play games, and access virtual worlds with different themes.
Zepeto has partnered with world famous figures and companies to gather popularity among youth groups and global audiences. For example, Blackpink, the popular K-pop girl group, collaborated with Zepeto and released the single “Ice Cream”. The music video has more than 120 million views on YouTube, and the music video was recreated in the Zepeto metaverse for users to access at any time. Fashion brands Gucci, Christian Dior, Nike, and cosmetics brands NARS have all moved their product lines to Zepeto for users to try on virtually.
HYBE, YG, and JYP, the leading South Korean K-pop brokers, have invested heavily in Naver Z (a Naver subsidiary operating Zepeto). SoftBank also invested $150 million in the platform.
While Zepeto is not based on blockchain and does not use cryptocurrencies or NFTs, it is gradually integrating crypto into its services through Line Tech Plus (Naver’s blockchain subsidiary LINE Corporation). LINE used its blockchain technology to release the Zepeto World digital Image NFT in Japan last year.
In the past few months, Naver Z has established two subsidiaries in US and Hong Kong, which are focused on Meataverse localization services for global users, and announced plans to strengthen gaming elements of the platform.
Somnium Space
Somnium Space is an open source Metaverse that opened in 2018 and focuses on the virtual reality (VR) experience. It issued a cryptocurrency called CUBE and now has a market value of about $72 million. Somnium Space’s users can use CUBE to rent land and pay for games and activities in its metaverse.
Somnium Space can be accessed from PC and mobile devices and has a Metaverse experience on VR devices. Like other open source Metaverse, Somnium Space allows players to buy, trade, and build properties on virtual land. In October, Somnium Space announced that it would launch its own VR headset hardware, designed to give users complete control over their virtual world experience. Somnium Space believes that as a decentralized and open Metaverse company, it cannot rely on other hardware suppliers to communicate and interact with users.
Somnium Space has also invited the Winklevoss brothers, co-founders of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, as official advisors. Additionally, Somnium Space has partnered with Solana Blockchain to support the establishment of a multi-chain open Metaverse and also welcome Solana NFTs to the platform.
Cryptovoxels and Spatial
Art is an important part of Metaverse and it is also the main direction of Cryptovoxels and Spatial. Cryptovoxels is built on Ethereum where users can buy lots and building stores and art galleries. Art galleries have become one of the company’s main selling points for Cryptovoxels, featuring hundreds of digital art galleries, including B, which presents the work of outstanding NFT artist Beeple 2.0 Museum.
Spatial is based in New York, aims to create a Metaverse for artists and build the world’s largest Metaverse gallery. Spatial’s co-founders said that previous art exhibition models lacked communication between artists and audiences, and the Metaverse is a new answer to the problem. Artists such as Grammy-winning producer Illmind, digital artist Krista Kim and sculptor Ken Kelleher (also known as Anchorball) have held events and sold NFT works at Spatial’s Metaverse, and completed a $25 million Series B funding in December.
The layout of the traditional giants
Horizon Worlds, Facebook’s first Metaverse project since it became Meta, opened to adults in North America in December, while Horizon Venues have grown tenfold to 300,000 since its opening. Although Meta described Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues as “VR social platforms” rather than the Metaverse, Zuckerberg takes Horizon software as the heart of Meta’s virtual world.
In January, Microsoft announced the acquisition of game developer Activision Blizzard as part of its plan to launch virtual worlds. China’s Tencent, like Meta and Microsoft, is also developing Metaverse, using its wechat app. Tencent also plans to acquire a Chinese gaming phone maker Black Shark to expand VR and AR hardware production to enter Metaverse track according to the Bloomberg reported.
Major South Korean internet companies and game developers such as SK Telecom, Com2uS and Netmarble are actively seeking Metaverse venture capital, while the Metaverse Association. This phenomenon also happens in Japan.
Metaverse is a new world for the new generation, it’s not just about creativity, but also about the monetization of creativity. Once involved, users will become a part of the real creator economy, truly owning assets and virtual reality experiences.
