Salim Group and WIR Group tie-up for metaverse venture

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Salim Group has partnered with Southeast Asia technology company WIR Group to develop a metaverse platform that will help both parties maintain their business leadership and competitiveness while driving the development of the metaverse platform in Indonesia. According to Axton Salim (pictured right), executive director of Salim Group, the adoption of the metaverse platform will allow it to explore "potentials and business opportunities that [were] unimaginable before".

Michel Budi Wirjatmo (pictured left), president director of WIR Group, added that the borderless metaverse world will not only improve business efficiency and effectiveness, but it will also bring fresh opportunities. However, specific ways are needed to navigate users in interacting and benefiting from the opportunities in the metaverse.

"With our expertise and experience in building and developing metaverse technology since 2009 to complete thousands of projects in the US, Germany, Spain, Nigeria, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Myanmar, WIR Group is confident in assisting the industry, including Salim Group, to enter and explore the metaverse world, to make innovations and breakthroughs, and to optimise every opportunity," he added.

The metaverse is certainly on most companies' radar these days. According to a Qlik study titled "Data Literacy: The Upskilling Evolution", over 99% of C-suite executives believe that they will hire new roles in the next 10 years, such as chief metaverse officer, chief automation officer, head of gamification, and immersion counsellor. At the same time, 85% believe that it will be important to have a chief metaverse officer in charge of employee and customer experiences that straddle digital and virtual realms.

Additionally, 86% of respondents believe that having a metaverse experience designer, responsible for employee and customer experiences that straddle virtual and physical realms, and who ensures data transfer is seamless, will be important.

Meanwhile, the metaverse is gradually making its mark in the Indonesian market and wider region as well. Earlier in January, Southeast Asian esports organisation EVOS Esports partnered with Avarik Saga, a Japanese RPG NFT P2E metaverse game, to expand the former's collection of games, including the adoption of blockchain-based games. Set to launch in the third quarter of this year, Avarik Saga is a strategic team-building game under the Japanese RPG genre that aims to bring the modern game experience into the NFT metaverse space.

Under the partnership, EVOS Esports will introduce blockchain technology to potentially untapped audiences in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries. This includes people who have not previously engaged with NFTs or games in general.

On a broader scale, Warner Music Group (WMG) partnered with The Sandbox, a gaming virtual world under Hong Kong-based software company Animoca Brands, to create its first music-themed world, WMG LAND, in the gaming metaverse. The music-themed world will feature concerts and musical experiences from WMG's leading roster of artists. This partnership marks WMG's first entry into the NFT metaverse realm, and The Sandbox's first deal with a major music company.

More recently, luxury fashion house Gucci launched cryptocurrency payment options earlier this month. The new payment option will commence by the end of May, and will be offered at select Gucci outlet stores, including those in Los Angeles, Miami, Las Vegas and New York. According to Reuters, Gucci plans to expand the service to its directly-operated North America stores in the near future, before eventually rolling it out across all of its stores. This will allow customers to transact in 10 different cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Wrapped Bitcoin, Litecoin, Shiba Inu, Dogecoin and five stable coins pegged to the US dollar.