Despite numerous brands pouring all of their money into the metaverse, most of them seem to agree that it’s years away from becoming a mainstream phenomenon. Sebastien Borget, a pioneer in the metaverse, confirms that sentiment, claiming that the platform is an artist first and profit later.
Metaverse Money take a while
Speaking with Techxplore, Sebastien Borget compared the metaverse to The Sandbox, his successful platform that paved the way for crypto-led virtual worlds. The pioneer claims that virtual worlds like the metaverse are a creative platform first and a monetization method second.
"Above all, it is a place for creativity and experience," said Borget. "Brands don't go there to monetise, we don't know how to do that."
Borget has found success in the metaverse via The Sandbox, a platform that quickly went from mobile game to virtual world where people can buy digital land with digital tokens. The Sandbox is so successful that fashion brands like Gucci and Adidas, financial firms Axa and HSBC, and Warner Music have set up shop there. Despite those brands, it’s still mostly a game and “only” has 350,000 users, with the goal to reach hundreds of millions in “five to ten years.”
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Everything belongs to us
While there is concern over cryptocurrency and NFTs dominating the metaverse, Sebastien Borget insists that the platform will have complete ownership over their digital content. He claims that everything from avatars to their attires will belong to the user, despite all of the commercial brands taking part in it.
“For the first time, users have ownership of their digital content,” he said. “The avatar, the wearables, the equipment, the land, the houses… everything belongs to them. They can dispose of it as they want.”
Despite everything belonging to us, Borget does admit that brands are working hard to make sure they leap into the metaverse once it becomes mainstream. The pioneer points out how brands were late getting into the internet was slow to embrace it as a platform for profit and they won’t make the same mistake with the metaverse.
“Brands were slow to embrace the web,” he said. “With web3 they are trying to get in a little earlier so as not to repeat their past mistakes.”