Solving the metaverse’s key challenges by working together with influencers
by Fuad Fatullaev, founder and CEO of WeWay
In the last two years, the NFT and metaverse sectors have expanded rapidly.
And according to a recent report, this growth is not stopping any time soon. The study’s findings show that the NFT market is expected to surge by nearly $150 billion between 2022 and 2026 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35%.
At the same time, City predicts that the metaverse market will be worth between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030. By that time, investment bank’s analysts believe that the digital realm could attract up to five billion users.
At first glance, these predictions may seem too bullish. However, in case virtual worlds go mainstream, it’s not unrealistic to expect the metaverse to reach the same-sized audience as current internet and social media users (4.95 billion and 4.62 billion).
In fact, as the global population is spending more time on the web every year (nearly seven hours a day, which is up by 13% since 2013), the internet has already become a kind of metaverse for us. As part of an unstoppable process, we will move completely into the metaverse over time.
However, this transition won’t be as easy as many expect, especially now when we are in the early stage of the metaverse.
I believe one of the challenges we have to overcome here is the lack of understanding, especially in the field of NFTs. Despite the growing market and massive hype around the space, influencers, celebrities, content creators, as well as their communities don’t know how the market works.
Yet, considering NFTs’ potential, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that celebs and artists like Paris Hilton, David Beckham, Madonna, and Eminem have all joined the NFT space to use it to their advantage.
But how can we become more efficient in this field?
Solving two key challenges
As I’ve mentioned earlier, neither celebs nor their followers truly understand how the NFT and metaverse market works.
This lack of knowledge leads to unrealistic goals and expectations that they won’t be able to meet with strategies they have been using elsewhere.
Say you have 10 million followers who are not familiar with non-fungibles, cryptocurrencies, or blockchain technology. Without taking the appropriate steps, you can’t just transform them into avid crypto users by simply telling them to buy your new NFT collection. Most of them won’t even have a clue about how to create a crypto wallet in the first place.
The second problem is utility. At the beginning of last year’s NFT craze, it was enough to raise millions of dollars by minting non-fungibles that had no use-cases other than being collectibles. However, as the initial hype is over, it has become much harder to succeed with this strategy.
Here’s an excellent example that confirms the above statement. While Jack Dorsey’s “First Tweet” NFT was sold for $2.9 million in March 2021, its new owner struggled to sell it a year later, with the top bid being less than $30,000 despite listing it for $48 million.
Instead of functioning solely as a collectible, celebrities should create NFTs that offer real-world utility for their holders. This can be anything from something as simple as a meet-and-greet or branded merch to exclusive memberships, live concerts, backstage events, and so on.
Seeing all these problems, I’ve founded WeWay together with my partners. Before WeWay, I launched multiple successful start-ups across the UAE and the UK, including one as part of a partnership with McKinsey’s start-up club right after graduating from Harvard Extension School.
As an entrepreneur with a degree in Game Theory and Social Behavior, me and my team are dedicated to helping celebrities, influencers, and other like-minded people solve their most-burning challenges to achieve success in the NFT space.
As part of our project, we guide influencers, celebrities, and content creators through the journey to adapt to the NFT and metaverse space. We show them how to make their digital products valuable and how to market and sell them successfully to their audiences.
Celebrities, it’s time to meet WeWay
At WeWay, we have three key products that celebrities can leverage to overcome the challenges of the metaverse and harness the true potential of NFTs.
The first is the Agency, which acts as a bridge between celebrities, brands, bloggers, and the metaverse. Here, our team of experts analyzes and unpacks the personality and abilities of influencers and picks the ones that are the most suited to be integrated organically into the Web3 space.
With the Agency, celebrities can create valuable NFTs that go beyond simple collectibles. Working with our partners, we have set up successful campaigns for musicians, rappers, and DJs where they have sold their non-fungibles in the form of music. Depending on the category of influencers, you can do many other things with NFTs. For example, e-sport players can partner with Play-to-Earn games and launch their collections as usable in-game items, musicians can sell digital concert tickets, and so on.
Our next service is the University, which we designed to educate the masses about crypto, NFTs, and the metaverse with the help of influencers so they can natively enter the Web3 world.
Low crypto and financial literacy, as well as a large number of scams, remain the market’s pain points. For these reasons, despite their intentions, many people don’t know how to enter the Web3 space and use NFTs.
Fortunately, the University is here to help them out. As part of the service, top influencers and celebrities are helping consumers in acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills to become active members of the metaverse and Web3 communities. In exchange for learning something new, they can earn an MBA and enjoy connecting with like-minded people.
So, as your followers are ready to enter the metaverse space and you know how to create value with your digital products, the final step is finding a place to introduce your NFTs to your fans. And that’s what the WeWay Marketplace is for.
With the service, you can mint and sell your NFTs . Our team will help you design your collections in a way to amplify a deep message within each piece of art that best resonates with your audience. This, combined with a dedicated page for creators, will help you optimize the performance of your campaigns.
It’s only a matter of time
Despite their increased popularity and the hype surrounding them, NFTs and the metaverse market are still in the early stages of development.
As consumers lack the knowledge to enter the space, celebrities have unrealistic expectations, and most NFT collections fail to provide real-world utility, market participants have many challenges to solve until the digital realm can reach mainstream adoption.
However, it’s only a matter of time until the metaverse takes over the online world.
And I have founded WeWay to make this transition smoother with my team by helping influencers find success in creating value and launching successful digital products, as well as educating their followers so they can easily engage in the Web3 space.
Website https://weway.io/
Twitter https://twitter.com/fuad_fatullaev
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/fuad-fatullaev-89b51062/