https://arab.news/n57c6
DUBAI: Chalhoub Group last month unveiled “GCC State of the Metaverse and its Potential for Luxury Retail,” a report which revealed the thoughts of Gulf consumers about Web3, which includes the metaverse, cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
The metaverse industry is currently worth $40 to $65 billion and is expected to reach $13 trillion by 2030.
Arab News spoke to Nick Vinckier, head of corporate innovation at Chalhoub Group, to learn more about the report.
There are three key takeaways from the document, according to Vinckier. The first is that although it is “very early days” for Web3, it is not a trend or hype that will fade; it will only grow exponentially.
The report shows high levels of awareness across all facets of Web3, with consumers being most aware of crypto (77 percent), followed by NFTs (49 percent) and the metaverse (46 percent), mainly among younger, high-income males predominantly in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman.
Secondly, Vinckier said, there is already a lot of value in Web3 with 48 percent saying they have invested in crypto. Moreover, 23 percent said they are engaged with NFTs and active on metaverse platforms, and 71 percent are engaged with branded virtual experiences.
Thirdly, he added, “the customer is already expecting that their favorite brands are present in the metaverse.”
Luxury consumers want to engage in metaverse experiences, with 89 percent saying they would like to preview products in the metaverse and 87 percent saying they expect their favorite brands to be present in the metaverse.
Despite these opportunities, there are barriers, such as users being afraid of crypto volatility (34 percent), lack of trust in NFTs (28 percent), and lack of understanding of the metaverse (42 percent), among others.
Crypto, particularly, has garnered a tarnished reputation following the FTX scandal last year. Founded by Sam Bankman-Fried in 2019, FTX is a cryptocurrency exchange that rose to popularity thanks to celebrity endorsements and an aggressive marketing strategy.
The crypto news site CoinDesk in November published the balance sheet of Alameda Research, a crypto investing firm also owned by Bankman-Fried, showing that Alameda held a large amount of a digital currency created by FTX called FTT.
The article set in motion a series of legal actions against Bankman-Fried, FTX, and the celebrities who promoted the crypto exchange, resulting in a financial scandal.
“It’s true that the FTX collapse and the insolvency issue with other exchanges has given a bad rep to crypto, but people had trust and volatility concerns even before the FTX scandal,” said Vinckier.
As the adoption of cryptocurrencies grows, Vinckier foresees regulators stepping in to work hand in hand with the private sector to create a framework that keeps everyone safe.
This is of crucial importance as buying and selling become more common in the metaverse, where crypto is the predominant currency.
For example, 93 percent of metaverse users have already made purchases in the last 12 months and 85 percent plan to do so in the next two years.
In-game purchases were the most common (60 percent), followed by 45 percent buying real-world items, and 42 percent buying NFTs.
The numbers shed light on the development of a new trend, the phygital world, which combines digital and physical worlds.
In the Gulf region, interest in phygital goods is particularly high with 83 percent saying they would consider buying an NFT that allows them to redeem it for a physical product, according to the report.
Brands have been quick to take notice, with global companies launching campaigns that allow consumers to redeem NFTs for a physical product.
Prada, for example, launched its first phygital campaign, Prada Timecapsule, back in 2019. Every month, the Timecapsule collection launches a new item, which is available exclusively online for 24 hours only. Each drop is linked to both a limited-edition physical product and a gifted NFT.
Rimowa, in partnership with digital studio RTFKT, last year sold 888 NFTs worth $3,000 each, which were redeemable against a one-of-a-kind luggage case.
The trend marks a new frontier for Web3 both globally and in the region, and one that will be crucial to Chalhoub Group’s future strategy.
The past year has been one of experimentation for the company. It has launched several big and small projects including, most notably, the “925 Genesis Mood” collection for Christofle, which saw all NFTs being sold out within five minutes of launch.
Based on its acquired knowledge, the company will now focus on fewer, but bigger projects with more investment behind them.
“As with anything in my division of corporate innovation, we start with exploration,” said Vinckier.
“We will start to exploit, grow and make them (projects) more sustainable, more structural, and have them impact our business more.”
Although he did not share specifics, Vinckier indicated that the company plans to focus more on phygital and omnichannel projects, because “we do not believe in a virtual-only future.”
The company still believes that physical, in-store experiences have true value, and, he added, “we will always be the first ones to keep that very close to our heart.”
Chalhoub Group will continue to invest, experiment and foray further into the world of Web3, but the split between its physical and digital efforts will never be 50-50, said Vinckier, but 60-40, at most.
He added: “We don’t sell luxury. Luxury is the experience in the (purchase) journey and that will be the same for Web3.”
SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter Inc. on Tuesday said it would expand the types of political ads allowed on the social media platform, an apparent reversal of its 2019 global ban on political ads, as the Elon Musk-owned company seeks to grow revenue.
The company tweeted it would also relax its advertising policy for “cause-based ads” in the United States, and moving forward would align its advertising policy “with that of TV and other media outlets.”
Twitter banned political ads in 2019 after it and other social media companies like Facebook faced widespread criticism for allowing election misinformation to spread across its services. It also restricted ads related to social causes.
“We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” tweeted Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s then-chief executive, in announcing the move.
Since Musk took over Twitter in late October, corporate advertisers have fled in response to the Tesla CEO laying off thousands of employees, reversing the permanent suspension of former US President Donald Trump and rushing a paid verification feature that resulted in scammers impersonating publicly-listed companies on Twitter.
Last month, Musk defended his deep cost-cutting measures, and said Twitter had been facing “negative cash flow” of $3 billion next year.
NEW DELHI: Google has told a tribunal in India that the country’s antitrust investigators copied parts of a European ruling against the US firm for abusing the market dominance of its Android operating system, arguing the decision be quashed, legal papers show.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) in October fined Alphabet Inc’s Google $161 million for exploiting its dominant position in markets such as online search and the Android app store, and asked it to change restrictions imposed on smartphone makers related to pre-installing apps.
Sources told Reuters in October that Google was worried about the Indian decision as the remedies ordered were seen as more sweeping than the European Commission’s landmark 2018 ruling for imposing unlawful restrictions on Android mobile device makers. Google has challenged a record 4.1-billion-euro ($4.3 billion) fine in that case.
In its filing to an Indian appeals tribunal, Google argues the CCI’s investigation unit “copy-pasted extensively from a European Commission decision, deploying evidence from Europe that was not examined in India.”
“There are more than 50 instances of copypasting,” in some cases “word-for-word,” and the watchdog erroneously dismissed the issue, Google said in its filing which is not public but has been reviewed by Reuters.
“The Commission failed to conduct an impartial, balanced, and legally sound investigation … Google’s mobile app distribution practices are pro-competitive and not unfair/ exclusionary.”
Spokespeople for the CCI and European Commission did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Google said in a statement it decided to appeal the CCI’s decision as it believes “it presents a major setback for our Indian users and businesses.” It did not comment on the copy-pasting allegations in its filing.
Google has asked the tribunal to quash the CCI’s order, and the case will be heard on Wednesday.
The Indian competition ruling came as Google faces increased antitrust scrutiny the world over. Google licenses its Android system to smartphone makers, but critics say it imposes restrictions that are anti-competitive.
The US firm says Android has created more choice for everyone and such agreements help keep the operating system free. In Europe, 75 percent of 550 million smartphones run on Android, compared with 97 percent of 600 million devices in India, Counterpoint Research estimates.
The CCI ruled in October that Google’s licensing of its Play Store “shall not be linked with the requirement of pre-installing” Google search services, the Chrome browser, YouTube or any other Google applications.
In its appeal, Google alleges the CCI only found antitrust infringements related to the Google search app, Chrome browser and YouTube, but its order “extends beyond” that.
Separately, Google has also appealed against another Indian antitrust decision where it was fined $113 million for restricting the use of third-party billing or payment processing services in India. The appeal is yet to be heard.
LONDON: A team of French journalists was within a few meters of an explosion following a Russian airstrike during a live broadcast from Druzhkivka, in eastern Ukraine, on Monday evening.
Paul Gasnier, who was on the ground with colleagues Heloise Gregoire and Theo Palfray, was shown reporting live for the French TV channel TMC when an explosion occurred just behind them.
Following the blast, dismayed staff in the studio were shown on TV screens, but Gasnier and his crew managed to reestablish their connection and continue their broadcast to Paris following the break.
The journalists admitted being scared, but said no one among the team was injured.
However, two other people were injured and the Altair ice hockey arena was destroyed in the airstrike.
The attack also damaged the MAN Hotel, the bus station, a church, a residential building and outbuildings in the city, according to reports.
A missile exploded a few dozen meters from a #French journalist who was in #Kramatorsk.
Video: TMC pic.twitter.com/A4Z9Uy38Ge
The Ice Hockey Federation of Ukraine said on its Telegram channel on Tuesday: “Since the start of the war, the Russian occupiers have destroyed five ice stadiums,” naming them as the Druzhba venue in Donetsk, arenas in Mariupol and Melitopol, and the Ice Palace in Sievierodonetsk, along with the Altair arena.
Donbas ice hockey club started using the Altair site in 2014, and said that the arena had been destroyed “as a result of rocket fire.”
Russian forces have intensified their raids against Ukrainian cities following devastating setbacks on the battlefield in the second half of 2022.
Casualties among members of the press and media have increased in the wake of more frequent raids.
More media workers were killed covering the war in Ukraine last year — 12 in total — than in any other country, according to the International Federation of Journalists.
Bjorn Stritzel, a German journalist from Bild, was slightly injured near the contact line in Ukraine on Monday.
A journalist from Japan was injured during a missile attack on Kyiv on Dec. 31, while Italian journalists earlier came under fire near Kherson.
PARIS: The Cesar Awards, France’s version of the Oscars, said Monday that anyone being investigated for allegations of sexual misconduct would be barred from its ceremony next month.
There were fears of protests at the event on February 25 over the latest #MeToo furor involving newcomer Sofiane Bennacer, who is being investigated by police on two allegations of rape and one of violence against a partner.
Bennacer, 25, who denies any wrongdoing, had been seen as an awards frontrunner for his part in “Les Amandiers” (titled “Forever Young” abroad) about a sexually promiscuous group of drama students in the 1980s.
It also follows protests at the 2020 ceremony when Roman Polanski, convicted of raping a child in the 1970s, won best director — which triggered a major reorganization of the Cesar Academy.
In a statement, the Academy said anyone facing a potential prison sentence for “violence, notably of (a) sexual or sexist nature” would be excluded from the coming ceremony.
“It has been decided not to highlight people who may have been put in question by the judiciary for acts of violence,” it said, adding that the step was being taken “out of respect for the victims,” even if they were only “presumed” victims.
Bennacer was dropped from the longlist of possible nominees in November after fresh allegations surfaced in the media.
The director of “Les Amandiers,” Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi (also said to be Bennacer’s girlfriend), denounced “a media lynching.”
She admitted on Instagram that the film’s producers were aware of allegations against Bennacer during the casting, “but I told them these rumors would not stop me and I couldn’t envision making the film without him.”
Her famous sister, singer and former French First Lady Carla Bruni, said the actor’s treatment undermined the presumption of innocence, “one of the foundations of our democracy.”
The Cesar Academy said it was still debating whether people with sexual misconduct allegations and convictions should be banned entirely from future nominations and awards, with a decision due in the coming weeks.
LONDON: Yemeni officials on Monday condemned arrests and prosecutions by the Iran-backed Houthi militia directed against media, journalists and celebrities.
The “abduction of journalist and YouTuber Ahmed Allaw, storming homes of activist Issa Al-Othari’s relatives, abducting his brothers, and terrorizing his family, confirms again that it is a rogue terrorist gang,” said Yemeni Minister of Information Moammar Al-Eryani.
“These frenzied campaigns confirm the state of hysteria that gripped Houthi leaders after calls for a popular uprising to get rid of this scourge that impoverished citizens in areas under its control, and destroyed everything beautiful in Yemen in implementation of a Tehran agenda,” Al-Eryani said in a series of tweets.
“The international community, the United Nations, UN and US envoys, and human rights organizations and bodies are called upon to condemn these criminal practices, and to put real pressure on the militia leaders to force them to release all those forcibly hidden in their illegal detention centers, including media professionals, journalists, and social media celebrities,” he said.
Al-Eryani added: “We warn against the terrorist Houthi militia affiliated with Iran, blocking the Internet in some areas under the pretext of confronting ‘soft war,’ in conjunction with calls for popular uprising, and arrests and prosecutions it launched against journalists and media workers, and activists.”
“These practices confirm the Houthi militia’s replication of the mullahs’ regime actions, which failed to quell popular protests in Iran, including blocking the Internet, unleashing hands of the Basij and Revolutionary Guards to suppress protesters, and coverup crimes and violations committed against them,” he said.
