Quick take:
- Salesforce has announced plans to enter the Web3 craze with a new NFT platform.
- The pilot dubbed NFT Cloud will allow Salesforce customers to mint, manage and sell NFTs.
- The platform will require no coding experience making it extremely easy to use.
Salesforce has become the latest mainstream technology company to jump on the Web3 train. The customer relationship management (CRM) and cloud computing company has launched a pilot version of an NFT marketplace dubbed NFT Cloud.
According to Salesforce, NFT Cloud is a web3 platform that will allow its customers to buy and sell digital assets. The company said that the decision was partly inspired by growing customer curiosity toward Web3.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Adam Caplan, SVP of Emerging Technology at Salesforce said: “Salesforce is seeing interest from CMOs and CDOs who are asking for help entering web3, and we are enthusiastic about bringing new innovations, products and offerings to our customers in a way that allows them to build and maintain meaningful relationships with their customers.”
Caplan said that the Web3 space is drawing interest across some of its business verticals including retail, media, fashion and consumer goods. Brands see it as a way of “driving engagement and communities, and we’re seeing super passionate communities in the NFT space…” he explained.
Thus the technology giant’s SVP wants to leverage this traction to introduce something that can be valuable to customers by providing utility. “… what we mean by utility is as an NFT holder, I receive certain benefits. It could be something in a digital world, or it could be something in the physical world,” he said.
Some of the use-cases cited in the interview include an NFT holder receiving a new type of clothing every quarter in exchange for owning the NFT. There is also a scenario where gamers holding NFTs receive special powers, that are not available to non-NFT owners
When Salesforce first announced its plans to enter the Web3 space in February, more than 400 employees revolted citing the environmental impact of minting NFTs.
But Caplan says they were in their right to complain as part of the company’s co-values and principles.
Nonetheless, he insisted that Salesforce wants to explore ways that its customers can utilise NFT technology without upsetting the company’s ethical principles. “We want to help our customers assess whether there is a viable path forward with NFT technology in a sustainable and ethical manner,” he said.
NFT Cloud is currently available in closed pilot mode and Salesforce has not indicated when it will be made available to the masses.
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