- Metaverse Group owns vast swathes of virtual land in various metaverses.
- He is not just an owner – he has developers who can build spaces to any advertiser’s wish.
- He designed virtual stores for Forever 21 and delivered the first Fashion Week.
If you still don’t understand the idea of buying “land” in the so-called metaverse, you’re not alone – the concept is nowhere near reaching mass adoption.
But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t surged in popularity during the pandemic, with some proponents saying it could be a trillion-dollar market.
One of the major players in the industry is the Metaverse Group, which has quietly positioned itself as the main owner in the virtual block. Andrew Kegwell, CEO of the company’s parent organization, Tokens.com, told Insider that it has pumped eight figures — or more than $10 million — into digital property purchases.
For the company, this is an early investment in ad space — and people’s eyeballs.
“If you go back 15 years, and when you’re browsing Facebook and Instagram, you’re shown ads,” Kegel said. “If you could go back 10, 15 or 20 years and buy back blocks of space within those social media platforms when they were still in their infancy, and you could do whatever you wanted with that space down the road, that would be very valuable.”
Hybrid owner and real estate developer
Tokens.com’s “Token Tower” in Decentraland.
Metaverse Collection
The metaverse would, in theory, be an all-digital world where people could interact via digital avatars, while being connected to their living rooms via augmented reality glasses and virtual reality headsets. But for now, these are just individual nascent spaces with little connection between each other.
That didn’t stop the Metaverse Group from grabbing space across several virtual ecosystems, such as Somnium Space and The Sandbox, where rapper Snoop Dogg lives. Its portfolio also includes space in Decentraland, the largest and most popular metaverse – and the most fully investigated for holding actual events.
Decentraland consists of about 90,000 pieces, only half of which are available to companies to own and develop. Kiguel declined to reveal the full figure the company had invested, but noted that in November it purchased a plot of land from Decentraland for $2.43 million in cryptocurrency. It also purchased the 34-part music precinct in Decentraland.
Kegel said that virtual parcels derive their value from the limited nature of virtual land. This is a familiar talking point among those who also rally behind bitcoin and its limited supply of 21 million coins.
Advertisers, musicians and retailers will want to use this virtual space to reach their audiences, Kirgwell hopes — and the Metaverse Group is ideally positioned to help them with that, all for a fee.
The first Fashion Week was hosted in March on the company’s grounds. As Vogue noted, the design elements were somewhat primitive and reminiscent of the ’90s. But more than 100,000 users were still flocking to the platform that week – far more than a personal show could ever do.
Other brands are coming to the company to help design virtual storefronts, digital billboards, and wearable NFTs, which are unique, blockchain-based digital items that token people can wear within the metaverse.
Forever 21 virtual store in Metaverse.
Metaverse Collection
It’s especially useful for existing companies like Forever 21, their own client, who want to get into the metaverse but don’t have in-house experts.
“We have a group of programmers and software engineers, so when a client comes in and says, ‘My vision is this,’ we can design it for them, we are able to create what they have on their mind and bring to digital life in the metaverse area.”
Metaverse Land is for advertisers – not regular users
Experts previously told Insider that metaverse real estate is nothing more than a “risky” crypto asset, unable to appreciate the value as physical property can. In fact, Kegel said residential real estate, or casual investors’ purchase of a “home” in the Metaverse area, is just something new.
However, it is different for advertisers. If the demand from advertisers on the metaverse increases, then whoever owns it will be in a good place.
“If I were to go to Decentraland now, it would probably be a ghost town other than the casinos,” Kegel said. “But when there is an event or when people keep things,” that’s a different story.
