Speaker 1: Hello, I'm Don Tan from the C Money M team
Speaker 1: with the five things you need to know about buying
Speaker 1: property in the metaverse. The metaverse is expected to generate
Speaker 1: up to $5 trillion in economic value by 2030 as
Speaker 1: it promises a richer environment to work, shop play and
Speaker 1: socialize online on this podcast. We'll hear from Samuel Huber,
Speaker 1: CEO of Land Vault, a virtual construction firm
Speaker 1: that helps brands build their presence in the Metaverse. Sam,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. So first off,
Speaker 1: tell me something about yourself and what you do in
Speaker 1: the metaverse,
Speaker 2: run a company called Land Vault, which we qualify as
Speaker 2: a construction company but in the virtual worlds. So we
Speaker 2: provide a full end to end solution for big brands
Speaker 2: and even governments now who want to create metaverse experiences
Speaker 2: and worlds. So we take care of the creation
Speaker 2: layer, helping them come up with amazing ideas and bringing
Speaker 2: that to life in virtual worlds. But we also build
Speaker 2: the technology to then deploy the content monetize the content
Speaker 2: and help them with an end to end solution, mastercard,
Speaker 2: for example, who was basically trying to create a virtual
Speaker 2: event for their teams and to educate their customers about
Speaker 2: specifically one of the initiatives that they support for three months.
Speaker 2: We run multiple events during that platform. Another example is
Speaker 2: Standard Chartered the bank.
Speaker 2: Their activation was more around hiring and talent acquisition specifically
Speaker 2: as they were trying to build a web three team.
Speaker 2: So they thought, where are we going to find a
Speaker 2: web three audience? Let's find them in the metaverse. We
Speaker 2: were also involved with the fashion week last year where
Speaker 2: we were basically selling virtual product for big brands like
Speaker 2: Tommy Hilfiger, l'oreal and so on. And that generated a
Speaker 2: significant amount of sales. So there's different things that you
Speaker 2: can achieve in the metaverse. We like to think of
Speaker 2: it as a 3d version of the internet.
Speaker 2: So things that you can do on the internet, like
Speaker 2: targeting new users, building communities or selling products are things
Speaker 2: that you can also do in the metaverse. But in
Speaker 2: three dimension, we have clients from financial services to fashion
Speaker 2: to automotive. We even work with big governments now in
Speaker 2: the Middle East who are using the metaverse as a
Speaker 2: tourism platform. What best way to showcase a country like
Speaker 2: Dubai than recreating it in three dimension. Showcasing the best entertainment,
Speaker 2: the best hotels, the best restaurant
Speaker 2: actually visit it in three dimension before you actually go
Speaker 2: there and enter the master suite in the Bour Arab
Speaker 2: and understand what it would feel to be there, you know,
Speaker 2: you are actually more likely to end up visiting or
Speaker 2: purchasing it. So it's a great showcase. And we like
Speaker 2: to think that the metaverse is the next best thing
Speaker 2: after reality.
Speaker 1: How big is the market opportunity here? In terms of
Speaker 1: the value of virtual
Speaker 2: land, the value of virtual land is really about what
Speaker 2: you can make of it, what you can develop from it.
Speaker 2: It's a little bit
Speaker 2: like in the real world where land itself, how valuable
Speaker 2: it is. It's hard to know, but it's really about
Speaker 2: what you can build on top of it. Can you
Speaker 2: build a business on top of that land? And it's
Speaker 2: pretty much the same in the metaverse. You have areas
Speaker 2: of the virtual world where you have maybe more celebrities.
Speaker 2: So it's more expensive. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: it's about the capabilities of the platform. What can you
Speaker 2: build on that land? So for example, if you can
Speaker 2: build an E commerce shop in 3D to sell your
Speaker 2: virtual clothes and you can make a million dollars a month,
Speaker 2: then
Speaker 2: that's the opportunity. That's what the land enables you to do.
Speaker 2: Think of the land as a three dimensional website. It's
Speaker 2: not about how many websites you have. It's about how
Speaker 2: much traffic you can drive to a website and what
Speaker 2: do you do with that audience if you are able
Speaker 2: to convert your users? So they buy your product, you
Speaker 2: only need one location, one business. So it's the same
Speaker 2: in the verse, you don't need to have a huge
Speaker 2: amount of land. What you need to create is a
Speaker 2: real reason for people to go there. Give them something
Speaker 2: fun engaging to do so that people spend time and
Speaker 2: eventually if you want, they can also buy products and
Speaker 2: buy items. So the metaverse is not really a new
Speaker 2: way to do business. It's just a new interface, a
Speaker 2: new three dimensional interface to be able to do things
Speaker 2: in more engaging, more realistic ways. But at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, it's all about people and what they
Speaker 2: can do, how
Speaker 1: are digital lands transacted? Then, I mean, how do you
Speaker 1: actually go about saying I want to buy some of
Speaker 1: this in digital
Speaker 2: space. Most of those platforms are what we call on chain.
Speaker 2: So on the Blockchain
Speaker 2: and individual land, which is a fraction of the map
Speaker 2: of that platform. They are individual N F T s.
Speaker 2: So N F T s are non fungible tokens. So
Speaker 2: these are basically unique coordinates that you get to own.
Speaker 2: So once you own the N F T, you put
Speaker 2: it in your wallet, it's yours and you can develop
Speaker 2: it and you own the business model on top of it.
Speaker 2: So this is how those are transacted. So you can
Speaker 2: go to any nt marketplace like open sea for example,
Speaker 2: or blur and just simply look for land and you
Speaker 2: will be able to buy and sell NTS in that market.
Speaker 2: We own actually a big portfolio of land. We've invested
Speaker 2: quite early in land on platforms like the sandbox and
Speaker 2: the central land and been through the whole journey of
Speaker 2: seeing parcels go from $50 all the way to $20,000
Speaker 2: and now back to 10,000. So it's been a pretty
Speaker 2: exciting real estate market, very volatile. We developed over 200
Speaker 2: parcels and that amounts to about 100 million square feet
Speaker 2: if you are translating that in the real world. So
Speaker 2: it's a significant amount of real estate development that we've made.
Speaker 1: We are looking at five things to know about buying
Speaker 1: property in the metaverse. We learned that the metaverse is
Speaker 1: basically a 3d version of the internet where many big
Speaker 1: brands are building their presence through unique experiences and the
Speaker 1: value of virtual land. All depends on what content is
Speaker 1: created
Speaker 1: on top of it. You need engaging and realistic content
Speaker 1: for people to stay in your metaverse. Space buying land
Speaker 1: in the metaverse is done through marketplaces that run on
Speaker 1: the Blockchain network and are transacted using non fungible tokens
Speaker 1: or
Speaker 1: so for people who might want to buy land in
Speaker 1: the metaphors, how should they go about doing it safely?
Speaker 2: It's an investment. So of course, it is risky. The
Speaker 2: last couple of years, everything was going up, it was
Speaker 2: a bull market. So it felt safe when in fact,
Speaker 2: it really wasn't. The key is to think about utility.
Speaker 2: What are you going to do with this land because
Speaker 2: just holding it and hoping that someone else will buy
Speaker 2: it off you for more money. That's pure speculation. This
Speaker 2: is not a safe
Speaker 2: way to invest. The metaverse itself is not necessarily more
Speaker 2: prone to scam. I would say that crypto and Web
Speaker 2: three which does power the MERS because there is so
Speaker 2: much financial incentives and it's vastly unregulated that did attract
Speaker 2: people who were taking shortcuts or looking for quick profits
Speaker 2: and sometimes at the expense of others. I think we've
Speaker 2: seen a lot of those people getting flushed out. Obviously,
Speaker 2: we have big scandals and smaller scandals and it's a
Speaker 2: natural progression.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, of technology, there were also a lot of scam,
Speaker 2: you know, in the first web revolution with websites that
Speaker 2: promise things that didn't actually happen. We have to be careful,
Speaker 2: the regulation is starting to happen. And I think overall
Speaker 2: this is a good thing for the industry.
Speaker 1: What does being careful look like though for the average investor?
Speaker 1: Like what can you do realistically simple
Speaker 2: things like do not click on links that you do
Speaker 2: not know about, do not respond to
Speaker 2: such as on Discord, which is where a lot of
Speaker 2: scam is happening. Do not connect your wallets to websites
Speaker 2: that you do not know basic things that we have
Speaker 2: learned through time on the internet. Do not put your
Speaker 2: credit card details. If it's not https connection, that's natural now.
Speaker 2: But in 2000, this was not. So I think it's
Speaker 2: just about relearning the new rules of web three, there
Speaker 2: are a few nuances, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: you know, a digital wallet is still real money. And
Speaker 2: so just like you wouldn't open your wallet in front
Speaker 2: of
Speaker 2: strangers necessarily, you should also be careful in that way
Speaker 2: in the digital
Speaker 1: world. How is Landolt using AI perhaps to enhance the
Speaker 1: metaverse experience and make it more accessible?
Speaker 2: We started to use generative ai to many prototype environments.
Speaker 2: So if we go to a client and the client
Speaker 2: wants us to build a hotel, for example, even though
Speaker 2: every hotel and building would be different, there are elements
Speaker 2: that are consistent. For example, a number of floors, you know,
Speaker 2: a structure with lifts,
Speaker 2: things like this. So we can use A I to
Speaker 2: kind of prototype the core of the experience and then
Speaker 2: use our own internal development to tweak to make it
Speaker 2: really unique. So we are basically able to do that
Speaker 2: a lot faster. One of the problems in the metaverse
Speaker 2: right now is generally the lack of things to do
Speaker 2: and the lack of things to do comes from the
Speaker 2: limitation with the content. There's just not enough experiences out
Speaker 2: there to build a true network. We have monitored about
Speaker 2: 2000 experiences in the metaverse today.
Speaker 2: Imagine if the internet only had 2000 websites that would
Speaker 2: be a very, very small network. So we need more content,
Speaker 2: we need more things to do to accelerate that. We
Speaker 2: need to give tools for people to make it easier
Speaker 2: for them to build. So A I is going to
Speaker 2: enable people to build things quicker, to build things faster.
Speaker 2: And as a result, it would be cheaper, meaning that
Speaker 2: more people
Speaker 2: will be able to build today, you know, an average
Speaker 2: metaverse activation probably costs $100,000 let's say, which is fine
Speaker 2: for big brands. And this is the reason why the
Speaker 2: only ones building are brands. But the metaverse is not
Speaker 2: meant to be a giant mall with only brands there.
Speaker 2: We want people to be able to create content, right?
Speaker 2: And so this is what needs to happen for the
Speaker 2: metaverse to become mainstream. We need more tools, we need
Speaker 2: to democratize the creation layer so that everyone can start
Speaker 2: building more content. And this will create the size of
Speaker 2: the network and the diversity of content that we need
Speaker 2: for the metaverse to actually go beyond the hype Samuel.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Well, that wraps up our discussion on investing in virtual
Speaker 1: land in the metaverse. We learned that the metaverse is
Speaker 1: basically a 3d version of the internet where many big
Speaker 1: brands are building their presence through unique experiences
Speaker 1: and the value of virtual land. Well, it all depends
Speaker 1: on what content is created on top of it, you
Speaker 1: need engaging and realistic content for people to stay in
Speaker 1: your metaverse. Space, buying land in the metaverse is done
Speaker 1: through marketplaces that run on the Blockchain network and are
Speaker 1: transacted using non fungible tokens or N F T s.
Speaker 1: But just like other investments, there are risks to buying
Speaker 1: virtual property and investors need to be vigilant online to
Speaker 1: avoid getting scammed.
Speaker 1: And finally artificial intelligence or A I can play a
Speaker 1: big role in making the metaverse more accessible via tools
Speaker 1: that will help people build their own content. Those were
Speaker 1: the five things you need to know about buying property
Speaker 1: in the metaverse. My guest today Samuel Hooper, Ceo of
Speaker 1: land Fault Money Mind airs every Saturday at 10 30
Speaker 1: PM on Media Corp C N A. You can also
Speaker 1: catch us online at C N A dot Asia or
Speaker 1: on youtube.