Future is now: Virtual stars, digital avatars grace Chinese shows watched by millions

K-pop acts’ VR and metaverse concerts, WEF’s virtual global village, plus more top stories

Author

Metaproof Team
January 20, 2023

đŸŽ„ Metaproof Media, Entertainment, IP

Hey friends, this is Sophia from đŸŽ„ Metaproof Media, Entertainment, IP, the weekly newsletter where we keep you informed on how the metaverse and web3 are changing the media, entertainment, and IP industry.

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💌 A quick thanks to our friends


Shout out to this week’s sponsor CyberBrokers. A project with futuristic, cyberpunk art and immersive storytelling, CyberBrokers tells an exciting story that takes users through the world of the Paradigm Lost. Create, collect, game, and experience in this journey that brings the metaverse to life. Expand your reality today and go explore the Paradigm Lost. Check them out here!

đŸ“Č By the numbers

  • 33% on average agree that the metaverse offers substantial potential for innovation and opportunities as it continues to evolve. About 29% say that the metaverse will face tough challenges this year. Yet 15% already plan to become early adopters in content monetization in this virtual world. (Source)

  • The metaverse or web3, according to Citi, may be a $13 trillion dollar industry and the Gen Z's economic power is the fastest growing across all of the generations, expected to be at $33 trillion by 2030. (Source)

    đŸ“« News & trends

    Chinese virtual stars

    Partly to draw in younger audiences, virtual stars are now in high demand for TV shows and online platforms in China. Numerous New Year celebration galas attest to this trend of digital avatars - created by AI-powered technology - making appearances across shows and entertainment venues.

    At the New Year’s Eve gala staged by Bilibili, a short-video sharing platform popular with young people, celebrity virtual idol Luo Tianyi performed five songs in 10 minutes as well as appeared alongside real-life dancers to celebrate the 10th anniversary of her debut. The show attracted more than 1.4 billion views. At Dragon TV’s New Year gala, a virtual anchor played a flute and danced with celebrity singer Cheng Xiao, watched by tens of millions of viewers.

    A virtual rock band also rocked a concert by Sichuan Television to mark 2023’s arrival, with the band comprising five digital avatars based on cultural relics found at the Sanxingdui site in Deyang, Sichuan province. Experts fearlessly forecast: In the future, internet users will migrate to the virtual world.

    Korean boy band NCT 127 will hold virtual concerts on the metaverse platform Roblox from January 28 to 30, the band's agency SM Entertainment has announced. Touted as the first time for a K-pop artist to hold a concert on Roblox, the NCT 127 Concert Experience will play every hour, starting on the 28th at 9 am, allowing fans around the world to enjoy the concert in celebration of the band's repackaged version of its fourth full-length album Ay-Yo, which will drop on the last day of the concert. The virtual concerts will also feature 3-D avatars of the nine NCT 127 members performing their hit songs, including “2 Baddies” (2022), “Kick It” (2020), and “Sticker” (2021). Roblox added new in-game items inspired by the band, such as limited-edition avatars drawn from NCT 127’s performance outfits as well as dances and virtual light sticks for fans to show support. Other K-pop artists have previously utilized metaverse platforms to promote themselves and connect with fans.

    The World Economic Forum has collaborated with Microsoft and Accenture and sought the backing of over 80 organizations to launch the Global Collaboration Village, a metaverse project to help tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. The virtual village - which will feature a town hall serving as the forum’s virtual congress center and several virtual collaboration spaces - will “bolster more diverse global collaboration and large-scale action” and will “use the frontier capabilities of the metaverse to find solutions for addressing the big issues of our time in a more open, inclusive and sustained way.” Companies and public institutions, including IBM and Meta as well as the United Nations and various governments, will meet in the first-ever interactive, multilateral session in the metaverse. Klaus Schwab, WEF founder and executive chairman, said: “We are creating the first public purpose-oriented application of the metaverse technology, building a true global village in the virtual space.”

    In 2023, virtual spaces offer disruption opportunities. As technology advances toward more immersive environments, experts see the potential to advertise in these spaces. About 33% on average agree that the metaverse offers significant potential for innovation and opportunities as it continues to evolve, while around 29% say that the metaverse will face tough challenges this year. Interestingly, 15% already plan to become early adopters in content monetization on this platform. Video games are another ripe opportunity for advertising, with publishers specifically optimistic: 34% acknowledge the potential for opportunities coming their way in 2023.

    aespa

    VR concert production and distribution company AmazeVR has announced that K-pop girl group aespa is set to premiere its first virtual reality concert at this year’s South By Southwest (SXSW) festival. The concert dubbed “aespa VR Concert at Kwangya” was chosen for the SXSW festival taking place in Austin, Texas this March. The 20-minute affair is the quartet’s first VR concert and will be set in Kwangya, an infinite, lawless virtual space that features in the K-pop agency’s and in particular aespa’s lore. Viewers will be transported from the real world to the FLAT, a controlled virtual plane where aespa’s ‘é’s, or virtual counterparts originate. In the FLAT, aespa and their é-counterparts are able to “synk” or enter a state of connection between humans and their avatars.

    Clear Channel Singapore has partnered with metaverse builder LandVault to bring its services into the virtual realm of Decentraland, becoming its first and an exclusive partner in the region to launch out-of-home (OOH) packages that will allow businesses to reach consumers in a new and potentially untapped market. Clear Channel will have formats available in virtual public spaces within Decentraland to create immersive experiences, including areas within Decentraland Games such as ICE poker and Diamond Hands City. Users visiting these areas play games for two to three hours per day (more than 60% of them being returning visitors) and ad placements are all natively integrated with the venues, enabling brand advertising spots and the teleportation of visitors to the advertisers’ URL or through an e-commerce store to drive engagement or transaction. Available packages will allow brands to connect the virtual experience to the physical world, with real-life assets.

    ​​The NFT project Azuki is partnering with Bilibili International and CryptoNatty to explore web3 innovations in media content, specifically in anime, by issuing "Bilibili cheers!" badges for Azuki, BEANZ, and Cheers UP NFT holders and creating a unique certified diamond label for them to verify their NFT profile pictures on the Bilibili International app (plus an emoji sticker pack for use on Discord and Bilibili). The partnership is set to enhance Azuki's brand image among young Chinese users, as Bilibili has a large user base of under 35 years old and over 330 million average monthly active users.

    Doodles, a web3 entertainment company known for its eponymous NFT project, has recently hired three new leaders to its team. Austin Hurwitz, Joe Ranzenbach, and Jay Ciruolo will be leading business development, product management, and frontend engineering respectively. Hurwitz, the new head of business development, announced his first day on Monday and is excited to work with partners in the industry to “develop the most joyful products and experiences in the world” for Doodles holders. Founded by Jordan Castro, Evan Keast, and renowned visual artist Scott Martin, Doodles has become a blue-chip NFT project that saw over $500M in trading volume within its first year. It also runs the Doodlebank, a community treasury that funds upstart ideas from its collectors, ultimately giving the community a say in how the Doodles brand expands.

    Brands will continue to monetize upon and build the metaverse through ecosystems. By layering in AR and VR, for instance, media organizations will begin developing ways to carry an individual consumer’s online persona and preferences across the digital world. Developments like this will allow consumers to establish a one-stop shop for their online profile, which can occur from social media to streaming to online gaming and increase personalization to new levels previously thought impossible. To succeed in this vision, industry leaders must come together to be more inclusive and embrace web3 open technologies.

    Singtel metaverse

    Singtel and SK Telecom (SKT) have held a joint metaverse event where attendees designed digital avatars and participated in various activities. Called Destination:ifland, the experience took place at the Singtel Comcentre in Singapore and was supported by ifland, SKT’s metaverse platform launched in 2021. It was also the first part of a larger series called The Meta Guide. SKT committed to showcasing the capabilities of Singtel 5G in “enabling innovative ways to engage consumers in the metaverse, such as new product launches, e-gaming, entertainment events and more.” The ifland platform, available on Android and iOS, already hosted several virtual events including concerts and celebrity fan meets.

    American visual media company Getty Image is suing Stability AI, the creator of Stable Diffusion for copyright infringement. Stable Diffusion is an AI tool that can create pictures from text descriptions and be used for other tasks like filling in missing parts of images or changing parts of them. It accuses Stability AI of copying and processing millions of Getty Images’ images without proper licensing, per a press release recently issued. According to Getty Images - known to distribute stock images and news photos - Stability AI is profiting from its pictures and those of its partners as it did not seek any such license from Getty Images and instead “chose to ignore viable licensing options and long standing legal protections in pursuit of their stand-alone commercial interests.”

    Entertainment technology firm Color Star, with a global network focused on applying technology and artificial intelligence in the entertainment industry, has announced that its subsidiary, Color Metaverse, has entered into a strategic cooperation framework agreement with short-video sharing platform Le Shua or Detok. Together, the two entities plan to help each other develop and grow in their respective markets, expanding support for various in-app content and increasing Detok's global influence and user base. Detok is a blockchain-based short-video and live streaming platform, combining short videos and live streaming with blockchain to create blockchain-based digital copyright protection. Color Metaverse plans to fully use the existing resources of Detok - which claims to already have millions of users - and provide the platform with a constant stream of new content including NFTs, new celebrity IPs, and digital features.

    When it comes to protecting digital assets, it's critical to know existing legal frameworks, which can be used to enforce IP in the metaverse, as it may be possible for a company to obtain relief based on their legacy IP. Companies should protect their digital assets the same way they protect their physical assets. Companies that have 2D logos or brands should consider transitioning them, where appropriate, to 3D. Patent applications are on the rise but may be more difficult to enforce in the virtual world. Rights owners, too, should be aware of copyright challenges, as protection may be limited by need for interoperability.

    The CyberBrokers project has launched the Mech Reveal feature on Pretty's, a platform for collecting and trading digital items. The futuristic, cyberpunk art project launched its Mechs to be used in its new questing and crafting game that will earn users resources and enable them to build epic NFTs for the metaverse. This is the first step in the project's plan to introduce utility for its Mech NFTs. In February, users will be able to collect and combine various parts to assemble a fully functional Mech NFT. Once assembled, users can mint a new ERC-721 Mech NFT that comes with downloadable files for use in other platforms.

    Cryptocurrency trading exchange Huobi has announced a tie-up with EVT protocol to launch what it has dubbed the world's first web3 cinema, called Web3 Cinema in the Huobi App. The film “The Uncle Victory” of EVT premiered simultaneously, and Huobi users can watch it online after paying with HT/NEW/USDT on January 17th. Huobi also claimed to be the first platform in the industry to launch Web3 Cinema, its metaverse ecosystem made “more rich and diversified.” Huobi Web3 Cinema, supported by the Newton chain EVT protocol, assists in the broadcast of movies and TV series via displaying information related to such featured presentations. Just like watching movies in offline cinemas, users need to check their tickets to watch movies; once this is done through the Huobi App entrance, they can check the expiration date of the viewing through the ticket. Users can also view information such as contract address, token ID, contract standard, holders, and copyright protection of movies through the EVT protocol.

    💾 Finance buzz

    • Buildmedia, an Auckland-based creative studio leading interactive real-time solutions across sectors using Epic Games Unreal Engine technology, merged with London and New York-based visualization studio The Boundary. The combined business seeks to help brands looking to exploit emerging web3 and metaverse opportunities via experiential interactive content and applications. (Source)

    • Animoca Brands Japan, a strategic subsidiary of Animoca Brands, revealed making a strategic investment of „10M (approximately $773,996) into Psychic VR Lab’s „1B fundraising round in December last year. (Source)

    đŸ—Łïž Quote of the week

    “The evolution of the internet is shifting towards a creator economy and immersive virtual worlds. This requires an ultra-low latency network with high-speed connectivity and higher bandwidth to enable the creation and delivery of an enhanced metaverse experience involving multiple users and augmented or virtual reality devices.”

     

    Anna Yip, CEO, Consumer Singapore at Singtel

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    All content on this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not aim to serve as or replace expert investment advice.

    If you are a startup building in the metaverse / web3 ecosystem and are raising capital, please reach out to Sfermion. Sfermion is an investment firm focused on accelerating the emergence of the metaverse.

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