'Meta-universe', luxury brands also want to capture the wealth code

Gucci: You can give me my ID number

Morgan Stanley analysts estimate that NFT luxury transactions will account for less than 1% of the total NFT virtual goods market in 2021. But a decade from now, luxury brands will account for 8 per cent of sales, and the total NFT market will grow to about $240bn. That means the luxury NFT market will reach nearly $20 billion by 2030. 'Demand for digital fashion and virtual luxury goods is set to grow dramatically over the next few years as more and more people move their lives online.' According to the report, while the metasomes will take years to develop, NFT products and social games will become more of an opportunity for luxury brands in the near future. Social gaming is also expected to add up to $20 billion to the luxury market by 2030, the investment bank predicts. However, Morgan Stanley further points out that partnerships between luxury goods and social games can generate more revenue and have a broader halo effect. But luxury NFT is obviously more profitable for luxury companies. Morgan Stanley strategists point out that in the early days of the metasomes, the luxury companies with the best access to NFT goods and social games were concentrated in soft luxury brands such as specialist ready-to-wear, leather goods and footwear, while hard luxury brands such as fine jewelry and professional watchmaking lagged. At Roblox, an online gaming and co-creation platform, for example, one in five Roblox gamers changes their avatars daily. 'Graphics are what virtual experiences are all about,' the Morgan Stanley report notes. 'Luxury brands are looking to partner with a wide range of gaming and meta-universe platforms.' Since 2021, several luxury brands have invested in NFT, including Gucci, Balenciaga, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Karl Lagerfeld, And high-end luggage brand RIMOWA, as well as beauty brands Clinique and Givenchy Parfums. Balenciaga's 'Fortnite' NFT jacket, launched in September 2021, costs 1,000 Vbucks, or $8 in real money, according to Morgan Stanley. The virtual Dionysus bag, which Gucci launched on Roblox in August 2021, is priced at 350,000 V, or $4,115. However, at this stage, luxury brands are still conservative in their investments and applications in NFT and social games, considering copyright and brand equity protection. 'As in the early days of e-commerce,' Morgan Stanley notes in the report, 'they are just testing the water temperature.' But the meta-universe concept, and the application pathways of NFT and social games, still have the most realistic appeal for luxury brands. In the female-dominated luxury industry, there is a wide audience of young men in the metasomes.