Without a doubt, the starting announcement in this race was given by Facebook or, rather, Meta, a few months ago. But in terms of putting it into action, there are already some other companies or projects that have taken a bit of the lead.
First hand, there are a variety of platforms diving into VR such as Decentraland and Cryptovoxels with a focus on gaming, NFTs and cryptocurrencies. Now, a little away from this prevailing theme of video games and cryptos is , a metaverse platform of South Korean origin. This platform is current for having Zara’s commitment to launch its first virtual clothing collection But what is it and how does it work?
This is Zepeto
Zepeto is a platform developed by the South Korean company Naver Z Corp, which was launched in August 2018 so that creators and users could exploit their creativity in a new digital universe. In its early years it had a special impact on young communities due to the presentation of 3D avatars, a function with which it has been able to achieve more than 200 million registered users and about two million active users per day. Among these users, most of its population is between women from 14 to 25 years old.
In this way, as we have already anticipated, within the application users can create their avatars (an animated version of them in 3D), with which they can explore the different universes of this metaverse, interact with others and set trends with different clothes. and accessories. It also has different environments to explore, as we explain in the following video.
Despite everything, Zepeto’s penetration within the Spanish market is not very extensive, and in fact the application is only partially translated into Spanish. Bearing this in mind, the question arises as to why Zara would select a platform with so little impact on its main markets to launch its virtual collection. The answer to this question could be traced back to the main function of this platform, its social interaction.
A social platform designed for avatars
As we already mentioned, Zepeto poses a metaverse different from those we have seen before, where the main theme is games and interaction through their universes. This metaverse also has a particular aesthetic that makes it similar to a social network, only that it is specifically designed for user avatars.
On its platform, users they can browse through your feed and others’ feed, just like Instagram or . In this way, they can access videos, stories or publications about different challenges or user journeys through the different environments of the application. Just this new level of social interaction, It poses an attractive medium for Zara, since it allows the creation of a community similar to the one existing in those with those using its clothes, although through avatars.
Similarly, this universe proposes an alternative way for brands to promote themselves, especially in the case of the fashion and accessories sector, since it has a wide customization capacity for avatars, giving rise to even some creators create their own unique pieces and trade them through the Zepeto currency. In this sense, in Zepeto there are two monetary units: gems and coins. According to our calculations, each gem, which must be purchased, costs between 6 and 7 euro cents. On the other hand, the coins are obtained by interacting in the app, playing games, answering surveys or watching ads.
In any case, it is important to note that, unlike other metaverses such as Decentraland or Cryptovoxels, Zepeto is neither decentralized nor (it is owned by a company, like Tiktok or Instagram) nor is it based on technology or its articles with NFTs. Although it is true that in May 2021 they signed an agreement with The Sandbox, a crypto metaverse, so it would not be surprising if they take steps in this direction in the near future.
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