The metaverse will be getting a brand new Dubai-themed experience, Animoca Brands has announced. The Dubaiverse is an exciting new project that’ll be delivered in collaboration with Animoca Brands’ subsidiary the Sandbox, as well as several local partners based in Dubai.
The announcement was made during the 62nd True Global Ventures conference last week (September 15). The conference, which was closed to the press, released a publicly available agenda prior to the event.
Animoca Brands’ @TheSandboxGame will be taking its #HongKong „Mega City” #metaverse strategy to a new market in #Dubai, launching a “#Dubaiverse,” the company said at the 62nd edition of the @TrueGlobalVCs Conference.
Read more: https://t.co/LFhKKypgOj#NFTs #blockchain #web3
— Animoca Brands (@animocabrands) September 19, 2022
Sebastien Borget, co-founder and COO of the Sandbox discussed the new project during a session titled “After the Sandbox’s Hong Kong Mega City, what is next in the Dubaiverse?”
Asked for further details, Sebastien told Play to Earn Diary:
“We’re building The Sandbox as a new digital nation without frontiers, a space dedicated first to creativity.
“The metaverse should be both global and local, that’s why we work to bring major regions of the world to share their culture, their brands, their history in The Sandbox and enable users to access it, participate in the co-creation of this world and even become virtual neighbors of them.
“DubaiVerse is a major step up for this strategy with the culture of MENA region being reflected in these first partnerships with Dubai’s VARA, Khaleej Times and GCEX – the first among many to be announced.”
Other location-based metaverse experiences are also in the works, with plans to create similar projects based on Singapore, South Korea, and Turkey.
The conference was co-organized with Animoca Brands.
What can we expect from the new Dubaiverse?
The Dubai-themed project will be inspired by the Sandbox’s Hong Kong Mega City project. Both projects were discussed during the True Global Ventures conference last week.
The Mega City cultural hub involves multiple Hong Kong partners from various industries, including film, music, finance, real estate, and gaming. Through profiling successful Hong Kong entrepreneurs and influencers, Mega City hopes to capture the spirit of Hong Kong in the metaverse.
A similar approach will be employed with the Dubaiverse which will be built through local partnerships. Among the new partners of the Dubaiverse are GCEX, a digital brokerage firm that will offer virtual asset education in an innovative new way.
Khaleej Times will also be joining the metaverse. Sohail Nawaz, Chief Digital Officer of Khaleej Times, said: “As publishers, business models are being challenged all over the world, and new business models come into this space, it’s a really important strategic move for us.”
The first plot of land in the Dubaiverse has been sold
The Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), a Dubai-based regulatory body, was the first to purchase a piece of land in the new Dubaiverse. VARA is the world’s first independent regulator of virtual assets and is the central authority for the global virtual asset industry in Dubai.
And it is no surprise that Animoca Brands is investing heavily in various metaverse experiences. Yat Siu, the co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands recently discussed the importance of the metaverse for true ownership in an interview which can be viewed below.
The co-founder discussed the future of the metaverse and the ever-evolving utility of NFTs.
Why Dubai?
There’s more to this glitzy metropolis in the desert than first meets the eye.
Dubai is a crypto-friendly, forward-thinking business hub that has an official governmental policy in place called the Dubai Metaverse Strategy.
It aims to turn Dubai into a global metaverse economy and a hub for the global metaverse community. It wants to attract more than 1,000 companies in the fields of blockchain and the metaverse while creating 40,000 virtual jobs by 2030.
In fact, the Dubaiverse is not the first Dubai-themed metaverse project ever. The Metaverse Dubai is another project currently being developed that aims to take advantage of the blockchain-friendly city’s economy.
Also, while other countries are clamping down on cryptocurrencies with regulations and bans, Dubai is looking at ways to place itself at the forefront of blockchain development and position itself as a strategic partner of these new technologies.
It is therefore perhaps unsurprising that major blockchain brands are looking to partner with this innovative hub that has a government-friendly metaverse strategy in place.
Animoca Brands: A bold vision for the future and significant financial backing
Prior to the news of the new Dubaiverse breaking, True Global Ventures 4 Plus announced they’re investing $17.2 million into Animoca Brands. This investment was made to encourage Animoca Brands to deliver on its mission.
In particular, TGV 4 Plus wants to support the company to deliver virtual property rights to gamers and internet users around the world. This is so play-to-earn economies and more equitable digital frameworks are developed to support the building of an open metaverse.
TGV General Partner Dušan Stojanović said:
“I’m impressed by the number and quality of strategic acquisitions and investments that Animoca Brands has made.
“It is one of the big winners of the market correction, and is likely to emerge stronger from this down market similarly to how companies like Amazon emerged from the Dotcom crash.”
Animoca Brands raised nearly $110 million in recent months, with other backers including GGV Capital, Boyu Capital, and Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Temasek.
With significant financial backing and a bold vision for the future, Animoca Brands and The Sandbox are on course to deliver the Dubaiverse among other exciting projects.
