NFT: China Way

By now, most would know what a NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is, so I won't spend too much time explaining what it is. But understanding how it would evolve and adapt into China context is super interesting.

The honour of most expensive NFT ever sold is owned by Pak who created?The Merge, and the Nifty Gateway marketplace sold it in December 2021 for a record of $91.8 million. Contrary to the concept that NFT is uniquely owned by a single user, no single individual owns?The Merge. Rather, close to 29,000 people collectively purchased it in units called “mass”. So, the collectors bought 266,445 masses. A single mass cost $575 when the sale started, with the price increasing by $25 every six hours until the masses sold out.

Famous Singer Jay Chou posted on social media claiming that his Boring Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT which is valued at more than $0.47M was stolen. The fact that he announced it on April Fool's Day had netizen thinking it was a hoax, but the man himself claim it is not.

So while NFT is highly valued and traded aggressively in various marketplaces, it is still a huge no-no inside China. Various Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba , Tencent, Bytedance allows registration of NFT on local blockchain and facilitating distribution in China.

Nicely renamed as "Digital Collectibles" in China, The application of NFT into the AIPL journey take shape as brands starts to use this new tool in their marketing activities.

AWARENESS: On first day of 2022, Midea announced the release of "Midea 2022 Dr M Series" Avatar. Dr M have since appear in the official social account of Midea, raising attention and interest from its fans and followers.

INTEREST: On the 60th anniversary of Want-Want, the brand team initiated a campaign to invite user to write birthday wishes that include the character "Want". The original target of 100K users was immediately over-achieved to over 140K users all attracted by the novelty of this idea, and also looking to stand a chance to win a unique Want-Want digital collectibles inspired by their iconic mascot. Massive media coverage and user engagement, checked.

PURCHASE: Mobile phone maker Xiaomi launches their 12Pro model on the last day of 2021 on Tmall. As a further incentive to buyers, 500 digital dragon egg was released and given to buyers with proof of purchase.

LOYALTY: Fans of Alipay was in for a treat when they team up with DunHuang Art Research Center to create a series of unique Digital Collectibles ! Issued on AntChain, the art series titled "Flying Apsaras in Dunhuang Murals" and Nine Coloured Deer" was released on 23 Jun 2021 with 8,000 limited copies at a sale price of 9.9Yuan + 10 Alipay points. This series was sold out overnight, and happy fans are able to show off their new payment skin to both friends and merchants alike.

With all the excitement of NFT/Digital collectibles in China, it is not surprising for the government to catch hold of its potential. The government of Shanghai says it supports “leading companies to explore building NFT exchanges,” according to the city’s 14th Five Year Plan on the digital economy, reported by TechCrunch on 14Jul, 2022. While this does not open the floodgate for Web3.0, crypto and the likes, it does leave a small window open for future mass adoption.

Meantime, how much do you think I can sell this drawing for ?

"Disclaimer: I am not that talented in drawing and source of pic is Funnypicture.org"

Have a great weekend ahead.

Cheers

Justin ?