What’s the future of Web3? Meta and Animoca Brands face off over metaverse visions at Hong Kong webinar
- Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman Yat Siu has championed a decentralised vision of the metaverse free from Big Tech monopolies
- Under chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, Meta is investing heavily in its own vision of the metaverse
Executives from social media giant Meta Platforms and blockchain gaming company Animoca Brands squared off at a webinar in Hong Kong on Thursday, openly questioning each other’s business models as debate over the future of the metaverse heats up.
Meta, parent firm of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and Hong Kong-based Animoca, developer of blockchain gaming platform The Sandbox, are both trying to convince investors and users that they hold the key to the future of metaverse – a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection and exchange.
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has staked a great deal on the future of the metaverse, believing that people will eventually migrate there, leaving reality behind for a virtual world that we create and govern.
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Meta opens a physical retail store where customers take a first look at virtual reality
Meanwhile, Animoca, whose co-founder and chairman Yat Siu has championed a decentralised vision of the metaverse free from Big Tech monopolies, has started to sell virtual land plots in The Sandbox.
At the webinar organised by the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, George Chen, Meta’s managing director of public policy for Greater China, questioned the value of virtual land.
“We don’t buy [virtual] land. And I don’t understand why there’s a need to pay for [virtual] land,” said Chen.
“I don’t mean The Sandbox specifically, as there are many services that sell virtual land ... but if a service is gone tomorrow, what happens, and who do I ask for my [virtual] land?”
