Metaverse: Billions are being spent to buy virtual land  

Shopping fever from companies

Nearly $2 billion has been spent in the past 12 months to buy digital land, as users and companies rush to acquire a piece of virtual terrain in the metaverse.

But with a metaverse still years away from a single online space where people can work and play in virtual reality, what’s the point of having such a space?

So far, we’ve seen artists buy digital land to create metaverse events in order to promote their art. Angie Taylor bought a metaverse plot of land in July 2020 for $1,500 and built two digital art galleries on it, which is sold for cryptocurrency.

But there are hundreds of metaverses, and until one dominates or merges, corporations buy and sell their version of land and experiences.

The most popular metaverse to date is Decentraland , a cartoonish universe in which land is sold for thousands or sometimes millions of dollars. Samsung, UPS and Sotheby’s are some of the big companies that have bought land there and built stores and visitor centers. Companies such as Adidas, Atari, Ubisoft, Binance, Warner Music and Gucci have turned to the second largest metaverse, the Sandbox . The five mainstream metaverses are completed by Roblox , Minecraft and Fortnite , which, although not based on the blockchain, have a huge user base that companies want to exploit.

Gucci Town had over 36 million visits in the last year, while Nike Land had 25 million. In both cities users can buy clothing for their avatars by paying with real money.