NFTs are often associated with ugly monkey drawings , but educational publisher Pearson has a new use for them. In a surprise announcement, the company revealed plans wanting NFTs of textbooks to profit on second-hand sales.
Unsurprisingly, the publisher wants to make it so that multiple purchases of second-hand textbooks will lead to more money for the company. With NFTs giving a percentage of sales to the original creators with each sale, this could, one day, be the case.
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Pearson CEO Andy Bird told Bloomberg that the plan is to sell second-hand textbooks as NFTs so they can get a cut of the profits from these sales. Most people know that publishers no longer get money once their items are sold second-hand and the move to NFTs is to ensure that they keep getting money.
“In the analogue world, a Pearson textbook was resold up to seven times, and we would only participate in the first sale,” said the CEO.
Bird continues, saying that their usage of NFTs could mean that the second-hand market could die out, ensuring more money for Pearson. The fact that they are so honest about this being a money issue over anything else is somewhat shocking. It will be interesting to see how students react to this news.
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More NFTs more money
As to why Pearson would resort to getting money that the second-hand market is getting, reports claim that students selling textbooks they no longer needed have impacted sales. While Pearson have entered the realm of digital books to try and make some of that money back, it seems that they see more benefits with NFTs.
“Technology like blockchain and NFTs allows us to participate in every sale of that particular item as it goes through its life,” Bird added.
Considering how important digital media is in the current age of studying, seeing Pearson go further beyond that into NFTs is a bit disappointing. While making a profit is normal, wanting to damage the second-hand textbook market is something else entirely.