Yahoo, a company that runs a search engine and makes media, has just released Decentraland, a metaverse for people in Hong Kong. The California-based company thinks that these new metaverse possibilities will make it possible for Hong Kong residents to keep up with their social lives while still following COVID-19 rules.
Since June 9, Hong Kong authorities have only let people into public places like nightclubs who have passed a COVID-19 test. Yahoo says that the metaverse might let people who are quarantined keep in touch with friends and family.
Yahoo is sponsoring metaverse music concerts in Decentraland and setting up an NFT gallery with works from Hong Kong artists. This online museum, called “The Abyss of Kwun Tong,” will show NFTs that were inspired by the Kwun Tong neighborhood of Hong Kong.
Lorraine Cheung, a Yahoo executive, says that the main goal of these new metaverse experiences is to “connect people regardless of time or place.” Cheung did, however, make it sound like Yahoo was interested in the advertising possibilities of the metaverse.
Yahoo’s first step into the metaverse is with Decentraland, but the company has worked with Web3 technology before. Rarity Sniper, for example, noticed that Yahoo’s Taiwan branch launched a curated NFT market this spring with the help of Blocto.
Hong Kong is starting to experience the Metaverse
Meta on Facebook announced big plans to bring metaverse technology to Hong Kong just a few days before Yahoo’s Decentraland experience came out. The South China Morning Post says that this summer, Meta will let people try out its Quest 2 virtual reality (VR) headgear in public places like the Central Market.
In Hong Kong, people from Meta will work directly with businesses and schools and also show off their VR technology. Meta thinks that by making these connections, businesses and schools will learn how to use the metaverse in their own fields. Meta also seems to teach Hong Kong students how to use augmented reality technologies.
Meta isn’t the only one who wants to show Hong Kong the metaverse. Hong Kong-based game company Animoca Brands has worked with a number of well-known people and businesses in the city. Animoca Brands’ most famous metaverse game, The Sandbox, is making a neighborhood called “Mega City” that looks like Hong Kong.
Several well-known Hong Kong celebrities and businesspeople are working on The Sandbox, including:
Stephen Fung does both acting and making movies.
Dough-Boy makes rap music.
Dreamergo, a cartoonist
CEO of New World Development, Adrian Cheng,
The book “Little Fighter” was written by Marti Wong.
Even traditional financial institutions see Hong Kong as one of the most important places to invest in the metaverse. For example, HSBC just announced that it will start a metaverse-focused fund that will only accept money from people in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Like its neighbor South Korea, Hong Kong is perfectly set up to become a metaverse powerhouse in Asia.
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