MTN Group emerges first African company on the metaverse
Africa’s largest mobile network provider, MTN Group, has emerged as the first company on the continent to buy some plots of digital land on the virtual reality world — metaverse.
In a press statement published on its website, the leading telco announced that 144 plots of digital land were purchased in Africarare, the first virtual reality metaverse in Africa that launched in South Africa last year. The company did not disclose how much exactly it spent for this.
According to the company’ Group Chief Marketing Officer Bernice Samuels, the move aligns with the MTN Group’s ambition 2025 which entails leveraging trends to augment and increase its customers’ digital experiences, whilst actualising overall business growth.
“This is an exciting moment for us as we lead businesses on the continent to enter the metaverse marketplace. This is exactly what our Ambition 2025 strategy is premised on – leveraging trends that amplify consumer’s digital experiences and engagement. We have always been at the forefront of technological and digital changes and we remain alive to the exciting opportunities the metaverse presents for us and our customers,” Samuels said.
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Furthermore, MTN Group said its presence on the metaverse demonstrates its commitment to supporting African innovation, and noted that it would leverage this to boost its attractiveness by availing customers access to “a series of experiences merged with consumer passion points like gaming and music.”
Note that the metaverse is the latest innovation that has taken the tech space by storm. Investopedia defines it as “a digital reality that combines aspects of social media, online gaming, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and cryptocurrencies to allow users to interact virtually.”
In the metaverse, not only do users get to interact with the computer-generated environment, they also interact with other users and engage in typical daily activities such as going to school, going to work, watching concerts, shopping at stores/malls, playing games, etc.
Around the world, many of companies (including some of the world’s largest corporations like Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, etc) have already jumped on the trend, with the aim of enhancing their customers’ digital experience.
MTN Group’s emergence on the platform is expected to prompt other African companies (especially those in tech and ICT) to follow suit; soon.
