Quick take:
- Yahoo has joined the metaverse race after announcing a virtual concert event in Hong Kong.
- The company is using the Decentraland metaverse to test its new tech.
- The announcement comes hot on the heels of Meta launching a similar product in the Asian country.
Yahoo has joined the metaverse race after launching a test project in Hong Kong. The company has followed its American technology rival Meta after announcing a virtual concert event to be available on the Decentraland metaverse.
The concert is part of a series of immersive advertising activities scheduled to take place in Hong Kong.
Facebook owner, Meta Platform announced on Tuesday a similar project, which now pits the two technology giants in rival settings in the Asian country. Hong Kong is also home to leading blockchain and metaverse company Animoca Brands.
The company’s co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu joked that Animoca will look to compete with Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta in onboarding communities to the metaverse in Hong Kong.
Siu maintains that his company’s approach to delivering the open metaverse is more in-sync with the needs of the market compared to Meta’s, which revealed in April that its Horizon Worlds metaverse could be taking nearly half of the proceeds made by creators.
However, the competition will likely go up a notch following Yahoo’s announcement.
According to the announcement, the internet company wants to hold virtual concerts and exhibitions on the popular metaverse platform Decentraland. The concerts will feature among other experiential events and characters ‘local idol groups and artists. It also plans to release a limited amount of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).”
“Yahoo Hong Kong has always been providing a wide range of online services that are relevant to people’s daily lives, including using the latest technology to improve and enhance the user experience,” said Lorraine Cheung, head of audience at Yahoo Hong Kong.
The company wants to use the metaverse to connect people regardless of time and location, she added.
The companies are looking to capitalise on an interesting statistic, which showed that over 80% of Hongkongers are interested or already engaging in immersive experiences, according to Yahoo Creative Studios’ Asia Pacific senior director, Roger Li.
Li believes that the next wave of digital shopping has already arrived in the metaverse.
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