The Sandbox Co-Founder on Launching Elvis Presley NFT Avatars, Future of the Metaverse

The sandbox is having Elvis Presley enter the metaverse with a public sale of the music icons and FT Avatars starting today. Joining us now to discuss is co-founder and chief operating officer for the sandbox Sebastian Bourget, Sebastian. Welcome to the show. Hello. Hi, everyone. Good morning, good morning. Good morning. All right, we have to talk about this. These NFTS are gonna give users voting rights for the Elvis Legacy Council. Dow. What is that? What are they getting voting rights for? If I go out and get one of these Elvis Presley NFTS, what do I get to do with it? Uh I think like the first thing you want to mention is like bringing this collection of 3000 unique avatar that you can use as your digital identity to play into the sandbox and like make wild memories. Show yourself with this like signature style with your iconic outfit and signature move. Like this is quite exciting. Like you're showing like everyone is famous one like Elvis Presley is so famous and everyone like to dress as him somehow, like there's no city in the world where you don't meet one person that's at a famous place is dressing like him. And now we're bringing down to the me to create those memories, share those moments together and come up together. There will be an event going on afterwards for avatar owners to engage and earn and create new memories and collect uh all together from anywhere in the world into this the actual world at sandbox. So it's really exciting. And uh I think like this is the first utility that we should look at and further down the line. Like we want to always bring more utility for our NF holders and Avatar holders as we've been doing in the past already with over 16 famous uh Avatar collection and all the content that launch in Sandbox. And this is part of it. First, it seems like the conversation around the metaverse has kind of been deflating. I'm not sure if you heard me. So I'm just gonna repeat that it feels like the conversation around the metaverse has kind of been deflating now. And the conversation around web three gaming has been ramping up when we talk about Metaverse and web three gaming. Is there a a blurred line there for you? You know, when I hear about it, it feels like it's probably one in the same. We're building these games in the metaverse and creating these immersive experiences. It, it's part of it. And I think like as this Presley is a great example, like the content that you're finding in the sandbox is much more than game. It's like social experience, like the social aspect is essential and it brings like values uh thematic such as music such as fashion, such as sports such as culture. Uh Sandbox is really unique in a sense that more than 40% of our user base and the content uh comes from Asia, for example, 30% from Europe and the rest from North and South America. And uh like you are accessing experiences that include gaming mechanics but are not your typical games. So it's broadening access to a wider audience that can become creator that can interact for the first time and like make new friendships, share those memories and moment together and explore similar content. They spend more time exploring in the sandbox than like playing in traditional mobile game or um like your social media application. Like you just spend an average of 30 minutes to 50 minutes a day in sandbox. So that's quite exciting. And I think we are a great platform to bring all that culture, all that entertainment content, all together and make fans engage in new ways more significant way than what we've seen before in uh web two and social media. So for the what, how come, how come you said recently that uh uh try to pop on your Asia question, you said recently that um Korea was the largest metaverse market in the world. And um you know, I I, I'd actually love to hear you talk more about just web three gaming Asia versus sort of the US market because that's become like an increasingly hot topic. And I'm just curious, like, if you see a real difference in sort of just the, um, attitude towards it in Asia versus, you know, the US and, and Europe, for example. Absolutely. That's a great question. And like, uh, yes, I'd like to reiterate that Asia is a growing market for sandbox represent 40% Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Singapore. They are leading the chart they represent already. Now top 10 of landowners of creators of local regional partners who are stepping in acquiring land and launching their experiences in sandbox for engage. So we're definitely seeing a lot of uh interest from all the agencies uh in sandbox platform, creators, players, uh brands. And of course, like we know that there's a lot of um D I trading as well. Uh and the token cryptocurrencies adoption in Asia. And uh that is also reflected in sandbox uh and, and more broadly in the metaverse adoption, but just to put sort of a finer point on it because you did say that, you know, Korea is like the largest metaverse market in the world. Is there sort of more adoption in Asia sort of real? Like, I mean, because, I mean, that's something that, you know, I recently been in Asia quite a lot. That's something that I'm actually hearing quite often that there's sort of more enthusiasm for web free gaming in Asia compared to the US. And I'm just curious if that you're seeing a similar thing. Absolutely. Like you can notice like all the recent announcement that's up in Hong Kong typically making it one of the prime destination now for uh many project in web free in gaming. The adoption uh of like several uh cryptocurrencies including the San Token by are being recognized here by the Hong Kong government as well. Has made several announcement and moving forward uh to like promoting Blockchain and free in general. And gaming is one of the youth case. That's a there has been two of the use cases here that benefits the most. So yes, I'm also on the ground very often in Asia and I can feel the energy from the community there and projects. And why, why do you think it is? Why do you think there's more enthusiasm in Asia? I'm just curious what you think the reason is I think it's, it's first cultural like Asia has like uh a very um like the mentality in Asia is like they are moving very fast in terms of um uh adopting technology in terms of uh like business and like the population. They are like there's more gen Z users, they are like very well connected uh to internet for almost 20 years. They had fiber internet, they had MMORPG virtual world before now. There are a large portion of population everywhere, not only in the metropolis, but also in the countryside are 20 to internet. They are using uh application and services to connect and get pretty much everything done digitally. They are already buying like digital asset as well. Like we know Korea typically has been one of the largest market where users were buying the actual currency and trading digital goods, even different Blockchain was available and that you were available. So for me, it's part of like uh very much the conation of that there is much less friction to like I think your digital identity interacting in the world creating and more uh there. I want to circle back to the beginning of this segment. Uh The Elvis Nfts that we were chatting about. Yeah, gives users the rights to vote on the Elvis Legacy Council. Do can you just walk us through that? What is it? What do people get to do once they have this NFT? So well, the first thing is like at San, they will be able to interact with each other to express themselves with those dance and move and they can uh like enter special events where they will earn a reward by the complete quest and gather all together. Then moving along like they will be I think like uh be able to participate in decentralized decision on like where they can use that identity. Uh even more, how they can connect with uh the Avatar and participate to creating the Elvis Presley legacy uh in the metaverse as well. I think it's really important to take that aspect into consideration on the platform like Sandbox because we are a very user generated content and community driven. So giving voice to users and of to participate into that. I think I i it's essential. So, no, Claude Francois NFT anytime soon, right? I mean, I think is, is much more like a global icon. Like again, like you can meet them in Japan in uh in Europe, in France, Francois, maybe uh why not? Like, maybe someone will do it. But in all seriousness, I mean, I, I mean, you know, yes, you do go after a large icon here but why not? You know, like II I, is it that much effort to create smaller, you know, NFTS around smaller icons versus uh somebody as big as that? I mean, like, yeah, Johnny Holiday. OK. Fine. Like what, what would, how much effort is, is going into making an uh Elvis NFT versus uh a, a smaller name, a more regional name I think like, like it's not about like um like, like on the technology side and the workflow, the process that we put in place to craft those uni avatar each one as those different aesthetic and move and etcetera. It's a very um it's a well rounded process, like within 2 to 3 months, we can launch our original collection and we are usually introducing 2 to 3 amounts now with our team and we've trained like the ecosystem to do the same. So now like builders are also introducing their own collection. Um The importance is like, does it matter? Is it relevant for the fans as well? And I think Elvis Presley represents something that's again iconic and global for a rock and roll for like a broader family friendly generation. But we have also launched collection for like uh that we're going to introduce a collection that relates more to like Japanese IP S manga anime uh that we have Avatar collection from a very popular uh Korean TV show that's coming up, don't want to reveal everything, but it's part of like, what do you do to attract those uh users into me averse no matter where they are and it doesn't matter if it's only popular regionally or globally. At the end of the day, I, I'll wait for the Enrico Macias. One, right. Sebastian. We're gonna have to leave it there. Thanks for joining the show. Thank you very much. Have a great day and see you in the mid hours. See you there. All right. That was uh co-founder and chief operating officer for the sandbox. Sebastian Borge.