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NFT, Metaverse, and Bubble Mart

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Dapper Labs is the Bubble Mart of Metaverse

Who did not think that the circle of the block chain, actually depends on a who did not pay attention to the plate.

Blockchain has been trying to appeal to more people, to tell different stories, to create different applications, and to get traditional sectors to understand the benefits of technological innovation, to little effect. All you can remember is bitcoin.

But in 2021, there are some signs that bitcoin isn't the only one.

Soulja Boy, a popular American rapper with five million followers on Twitter, released his ownNFT; Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, a champion NBA team, launched NFT; A dunk by superstar LeBron James sold for $250,000 on NFT; Football giants Barcelona, AC Milan and other top clubs also have their own NFT.

These events are stones that have been thrown at various fan circles, causing uproar in different circles. Hip-hop fans on Twitter are discussing how to buy their idols' NFT; NFT about NBA is also discussed in Clubhouse NBA Topics; Even the biggest sports forum in China, Hupu, has begun to have a relevant topic.

The speed of NFT's growth has surprised everyone.

The high point came on March 11, when famous artist Beeple's NFT went under the hammer at Christie's with a last-second bid of $69.34 million. The NFT is the 53rd most expensive work of art in the world, and Beeple is one of the top three living artists by value.

And Internet also gave the NFT a good assists, the planet's two biggest social platform, tencent and Facebook, and attention to augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) is not an accident, they will think the future of the Internet become Metaverse (the universe), it is a virtual and reality can seamless world, and the word NFT also many times are discussed in the subject of Metaverse, represent the ownership of NFT in Metaverse, perfect fit.

In just a few short months, the word "NFT" was parachuted around the world. Blockchain is spreading out through this product at a rate that has never been seen before. This is not a diffusion from within or out, but a multipoint flowering.

Capital's sense of smell is the most acute, they have already smelled the blue sea of NFT.

The well-known NFT trading platform Nifty Gateway is the largest encrypted in the United StatescurrencyGPINI, NFT, Mintbase raised $1 million in seed funding, Terra Virtua raised $2.5 million in private funding, and Rarible, one of the most popular platforms in the industry, raised $1.75 million.

A whole new market is opening up, and it's all due to the kitten of 2017 and the team behind it.

NFT origin

Whether or not youinvestmentIn 2017, you must have heard about the madness of Bitcoin, which quadrupled in market value in a very short period of time and became the most watched asset in the world amid the overwhelming coverage of the tech and financial media. As Bitcoin rose to fame, so did the blockchain industry behind it. Thousands of projects have appeared in the market in the form of hype concepts, and there are few practical applications of blockchain.

But crypto cats are the most special kind.

This is a collection classThe game, the player is given a virtual kitten. The point is, every kitten is different.

Through blockchain technology, the cat's fur color, eyes, stripes and other attributes ensure the uniqueness of each cat. No one else can own the cat that you own.

NFT、Metaverse，与泡泡玛特

One such "crypto cat" sold for as much as 1.2 million RMB

Later, people put these tokens, with independent property become NFT, called the "Non homogeneous tokens (Non - Fungible Token)", the interpretation of the more popular, can be understood as an interchange of scrip.

The paper money we use in everyday life is "fungible". Every note of the same face value can be exchanged without dispute between the two sides, because they are of the same value. In the crypto world, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are "interchangeable tokens."

Due to different standards for on-chain contracts, there is a "non-interchangeable" token.

For example, we cannot directly exchange Mona Lisa for Girl with a Pearl Earring. Although both are paintings and the material is paper, they have different values and carry different cultures, leading to different values. This is the difference between NFT and normal cryptocurrencies. One of your Bitcoins can be directly exchanged for one of my Bitcoins, but one of your NFT can't directly exchanged for my NFT.

Soon, owning cats became a trend among crypto players. At that time, owning a cat was just as exciting as ordinary people buying a designer bag or getting an idol's signature. Under the crazy chase of crypto circle, this virtual cat game unexpectedly became the biggest live application in a single day for the largest ecological network "Ethereum" of blockchain.

The phenomenally successful game also introduced everyone to the team behind the kitten, Dapper Labs.

From the perspective of God, look to the real life. At the same time that crypto cats are being sought after in the blockchain industry, in 2017, an identifiable little girl with blue eyes and pouty mouth began to appear on the conversation circle of young people and gradually became popular.

The doll furnishings of the image of this little girl attract the interest of young people by the slightly different characteristics of clothing and shape of each doll. A few dollars, you can let players open the box after the harvest surprise. With the popularity of the game, the young man also got to know the little girl named Molly and the company named Poppy Mart.

Three years later, when we look back on this "Century Synchronization", we will find that in the virtual and real world, there are two companies that can match each other in terms of platform, IP, brand and other levels, which is the inevitable of The Times.

Be your own platform

Dapper Labs saw an opportunity in the crypto cat market.

More than 90,000 players, the number one transaction volume of 29.9 million US dollars for several consecutive years, more than 5 million transfer records, and the highest transaction volume of a single cat as high as 1.2 million RMB, all these data prove that this NFT market created by the contractual characteristics of blockchain technology has a very high potential. With such an astonishing impact from a single kitten, the opportunity for NFT is clear.

But the limits are also stark. In this niche market, a single game transaction clogs the world's largest blockchain network platform. For the NFT market, which has the potential to reach a much larger number of users, the underlying platform performance is the biggest drawback. The application is too advanced, but the premise is to have the underlying support.

Thus, the Flow project was put on the agenda.

This is a platform created by Dapper Labs specifically for NFT games, and a block chain network dedicated to NFT. The purpose is to allow every player to enjoy the top game experience. There are no delays, no high fees, and players don't even feel like they're playing on a blockchain-based network.

It's not that there aren't platforms out there that perform better than Ethereum, but Dapper Labs chose to build its own. This move proved crucial. Three years later, Dapper Labs used NBA's official co-branded NFT game "NBA Top Shot" to attract more than 200,000 users, pushing NFT to a new high.

Compared with the congested Ethereum network at the same time, the Flow network of Dapper Labs fully supports several times the number of users, without congestion or fees. It is almost the same as the Internet in terms of user interface and user experience, and hundreds of thousands of players cannot understand that this is a game based on blockchain network at all.

Build your own platform and own your own channel, which is similar to the real world bubble mart.

If you go to the field, you will find that the supply chain that is capable of producing high-quality blind box toys in the country is covered by Puppy Mart.

These suppliers are not only the production channels of Paobat, but also the production channels of Paobat only. In order not to let the manufacturer to pick up the list of competing products, Bubble Mart will pull all the productivity of the manufacturer, and every production line is producing Bubble Mart products all the time, and there can be no idle productivity. Once production suppliers were able to increase capacity, Popmart quickly increased demand.

A strong supply chain requires a more powerful sales channel to digest. As of June 30, 2020, Popmart had 136 retail stores in 33 Chinese cities and 1,001 vending machines in 62 cities, according to the prospectus.

As long as you walk in the first - and second-tier cities in the mainstream business district, basically will not miss the Bubble Mart exhibition hall. More than 7 million users in each exhibition hall of 200 square meters and tens of thousands of SKUs across the country contributed nearly 800 million RMB to the revenue of Pawmart in 2019, accounting for nearly 50% of the total revenue of omnichanel.

NFT、Metaverse，与泡泡玛特

Source: Popmart's prospectus

In terms of channel selection, Dapper Labs and Popmart have both decided to go their own way, and another similarity between them is their perceived brand power.

From the contracted IP to see the brand

There are many companies doing games in the market, but Dapper Labs is the only one doing its own platform, which has also been recognized by the capital.

Dapper Labs has raised $11.4 million in funding for the Flow platform, with an impressive list of investors, including Union Square Ventures (USV), which invested in Twitter in Series A, and some of the best known in the industryCoinbaseVentures, and the top tier of funding from the previous rounda16zAnd Samsung.

These investment institutions, which are well known in the blockchain and technology Internet industry, in addition to recognizing the development ideas of Dapper Labs, pay more attention to the brand that Dapper Labs has created in the NFT field of blockchain.

What pushed the Dapper Labs brand to a climax was NBA Top Shot, which cooperated with NBA officials and was recommended by Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Lone Riders, and Durant, the Top soccer player.

NFT、Metaverse，与泡泡玛特

One of James' dunks just fetched $208,000

There are thousands of IPs in the world, and how to choose one is an art. If you pay attention to popular logo and the toy market, you will find that the "Tom and Jerry" IP has suddenly appeared in the market in recent days, co-branded clothes with fashion brands, and toys produced with blind box brands.

The core reason why so many people would choose the IP of "Tom and Jerry" is that this IP is an image that almost no one on this planet does not know, extremely universal.

If you look at the top IPs around the world, like Hello Kitty and Disney, they are the most profitable characters today for one reason: everyone knows and loves them.

Of course, including the NBA IP.

It is one of the four major basketball leagues in the United States, with a global coverage of billions of fans. Combined with the official business operation of the NBA and the personal influence of top stars, the name of the NBA is almost unknown around the world.

With this very universal IP joint name, of course, is a very appropriate business. It's not just sports giants like Nike that have partnered with the NBA. Even Bear Brick, one of the most popular gaming brands in the world, has released toys under the NBA IP.

NFT、Metaverse，与泡泡玛特

This is what is currently lacking in the crypto NFT space. Now NFT collection is too strong, but the word collection naturally generates a sense of distance, the market is really small.

In 2020, Art Basel and UBS jointly released a "2020 Art Market Report", data showed that the global art sales in 2019 declined by 5% year on year, about 64.1 billion US dollars, with 40.5 million transactions. In 2018, it was the highest level in nearly 10 years, and the data in 2019 has already started to decline.

What is the size of the consumer goods market, compared with less than $70 billion for collectibles?

We also use the data of 2019, JD's GMV in 2019 is 299.6 billion US dollars, breaking the 2 trillion RMB mark for the first time. Annual active users rose to 362 million.

Alibaba's numbers are even more impressive, with its consumer commerce business reaching 7.07 trillion yuan, or $1.014 trillion, making it the first platform in the world with a GMV above $1 trillion.

The global art market is a fraction of the size of a single consumer platform, and the consumer market is still growing compared with the collectible art market, which has started to decline.

Back at Puppet Mart, in 2019, Puppet Mart generated revenue of 1.683 billion yuan, or about 300 million US dollars, with a growth rate of 227%. Again, the sector will not stop growing.

By the end of 2009, there were about 260 million people of Generation Z, accounting for 16% of the total population. This is a completely different generation. With the Internet as their own education, they are more inclined to the spiritual level of consumption thoughts.

In 2019, the global market scale of fashion game 19.8 billion US dollars, China's scale of 20.7 billion yuan, and Founder Securities forecast that by 2024, the global fashion game market still has 17% growth space, and China's fashion game market still has more than 20% growth space, in 2024 can reach 76.3 billion yuan.

This is also the potential of NFT.

NFT is indeed very popular now. Many people do not recognize it. They think it is hype and FOMO, and NFT has no real use.

But they may not be thinking about the existence of NFT in terms of their time.

Before the 1980s, there was no Internet, so everyone was taught that Da Vinci's paintings were called art, Jingdezhen's porcelain was called art, only physical objects were art, and gold was a hedge. In this way of thinking, it's hard to believe that an on-chain NFT can have value.

But as time goes on, the post-80s have accepted that the equipment in the game can be worth hundreds of thousands of yuan, and Takashi Murakami's sunflower is now art.

By the time they come to the Z era, they have accepted that Bitcoin is better than gold, they regard virtual characters as idols, they may not be able to understand Leonardo's painting, but in their mind, NFT may be the art of their era.

In the future all-digital world of Metaverse, it gives NFT a more consistent plausiveness. In the virtual world, maybe the furniture we buy in IKEA is also NFT, and the clothes we buy in the mall is also NFT, which may be the future normal state of NFT.

This field now puts more emphasis on art collection. With the already niche art circle and the more niche cryptocurrency circle, the intersection of the two niche circles is the support of the NFT field, which is impossible to develop outside the circle. Dapper Labs chose NBA IP, which completely broke the original impression of NFT.

The NBA game created by Dapper Labs is by no means a simple card collection game. The two words "collection" naturally cut off most of the game. Dapper Labs creates a community and gathering place for NBA fans, which is also in harmony with the playing style of Bubble Mart.

Molly's original paintings were originally very artistic, and each painting was an artistic way to express the artist's desire, which was doomed to be less acceptable to the public.

NFT、Metaverse，与泡泡玛特

Therefore, after signing the IP, Paomat will personally overhaul the IP, discarding all the elements related to art, leaving the most easily accepted elements.

To put it more bluntly, what Popmart does is not collectibles. Collecting is naturally distant from ordinary people. What Popmart does is consumer goods, such as tea and McDonald's, rather than niche collectibles like Bear Brick. So we see Popmart's IP is extremely universal, either the already high coverage of Disney, or the modified Molly.

They signed on to Disney in order to be able to spread their products to Disney parks and expand their distribution channels. Similarly, Dapper Labs signed on to the NBA in order to expand its user base.

And such a strategy, more prominent brand value. The IP deal isn't unique. The NBA can sign with Dapper Labs, they can also sign with other NFT brands, Disney can sign with Popmart, they can also sign with other brands.

But why did Dapper Labs get the NBA license? The core is that in the past years of development, Dapper Labs has already become the top brand in the NFT field.

Just like when we mention Iron Man, the first brand that comes to mind is Hot Toys, because their head carving design and the quality of their alloy materials are the best in their category. When we mention the blind box, we will think of the bubble mart, because the design and quality of the bubble mart is the first of all the products of the same type.

Similarly, when we think of NFT, the brand that comes to mind is Dapper Labs. Rhythm itself could make an NBA NFT game, but certainly no more valuable than what Dapper Labs has designed.

Because they have top VC support, the most loyal player users, and their own platform, all of these bring together the brand strength of Dapper Labs, which is enough for everyone who knows about NFT to know about Dapper Labs, enough for their NFT to attract more attention than other brands, and become the "Bubble Mat" of the Metaverse field.

"We want to show the world that, in addition to trading andfinancialThere are more practical uses for cryptocurrencies than that. " Roham Gharegozlou, co-founder and CEO of Dapper Labs, said in an interview. Now, the NFT represented by Dapper Labs has completely separated itself from blockchain and Bitcoin.

From the crypto cat that blew up the industry, to the Flow network specially created for the NFT field, and then to the NBA Top Shot that pushed the industry to a climax, Dapper Labs is constantly creating miracles. With the contract of new IP such as international motorcycle race MotoGP, and with the cooperation with Top game organizations such as Ubisoft, now maybe Dapper Labs, or even a new chapter of NFT.

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