Aco Technology: How to Create a New Trend for Metaverse Brands
This popular cultural symbol actually satisfies higher needs such as respect, knowledge, aesthetics, and even self-actualization.Author: ARCC Ake Technology
On November 16, 2022, ARCC Ake Technology announced that the company has completed a tens of millions angel round financing. This round of financing was led by Dongtou (Beijing) Holdings Co., Ltd. Founder Wang Zhaoqian stated that this round of financing will mainly be used for market promotion and brand awareness building.
ARCC Ake Technology was established in 2022 and is a brand new metaverse brand enterprise targeting Generation Z. Currently, its business covers multiple segments in metaverse digital marketing and Web 3.0. The company has three major business segments: digital consumer products, including PFP projects and physical products, trendy content, and e-commerce platforms, somewhat akin to a combination of Dapper Labs and Bored Apes.
Ake Technology was founded by former Aurora Vice President Wang Zhaoqian, who previously invested in virtual human companies such as Mofa Technology and Output in the metaverse field. In the unicorn cases of artificial intelligence and cross-border sectors, there are examples like Jitu Express and Zongmu Technology.
The Prosperity of Metaverse Brands Overseas
In 2021, the overseas NFT market experienced explosive growth, with OpenSea, as an NFT trading platform, seeing its trading volume increase by 688 times within a year. Among them, PFP projects (digital avatars) accounted for more than half of the total trading volume. Bored Apes, as the number one brand of digital avatars, has become a household name IP, akin to the Disney and Supreme of the metaverse world. Bored Apes was established in March 2021, and by March 2022, it had become a super unicorn valued at $4 billion.
After the explosive growth of NFT trading volume in 2021, it sharply declined in 2022. In Q3 2021, it grew 12 times quarter-on-quarter, while Q1 2022 saw a 49% increase in trading volume quarter-on-quarter, Q2 2022 saw a 29% decline, and Q3 saw a 78% decline, with a year-on-year decrease of 76%. Nevertheless, PFP brands continued to be favored in the capital market, with several brands completing significant financing, such as Doodles, Azuki, and Moonbird. Among them, Doodles completed a $50 million financing round, valued at $700 million. Azuki completed a $30 million financing round, valued at $300 million. Moonbird also completed a $50 million financing round. This stands out particularly in the context of the crypto bear market.
At the same time, major consumer brands, including LV, Gucci, Nike, and Adidas, have all entered the metaverse, producing digital products and digital assets as essentials, with various cross-border collaborations emerging.
When asked why he chose to start a business during such a downturn in the economy, Wang Zhaoqian stated that throughout his entire VC career, cases like Bored Apes are extremely rare. Moreover, this is not a short-term phenomenon. He believes that such entrepreneurial opportunities should not be missed.
The Cultural Value of Metaverse Brands
Wang Zhaoqian believes that young people have a strong demand for metaverse brands. In the metaverse era, a person's digital wallet address represents personal identity ID, and all digital brand products under a 100% owned digital avatar and identity ID will become an important way for young people to identify their identity and social circles. The popularity of the metaverse and the current sluggish consumer market also indicate that Generation Z has a natural high acceptance of the metaverse. Any traditional brand that does not embrace the metaverse will gradually be eliminated.
Wang Zhaoqian believes that there are two major differences between metaverse brands and traditional brands. The first is that metaverse brands can simultaneously meet basic needs, such as physiological needs, and higher-level needs, such as self-actualization, through a single product. They represent a new type of "Maslow's hierarchy of needs" in digital products & brands.
Taking the most famous PFP brands, CryptoPunk and Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), as examples, the former represents the state of young people entering Web 3.0, embodying the punk spirit filled with rebellion and anger. The narrative of the latter is a group of already successful crypto practitioners who have become bored after fulfilling all their desires, thus forming a club that represents the worldview of mature individuals. These two value systems are expressed through a series of image combinations, gradually becoming the identity recognition and group identity of the owners, transforming into a collective symbolic memory of this community, becoming a modern totem.
The satisfaction provided by this popular cultural symbol actually meets higher-level needs such as respect, knowledge, aesthetics, and even self-actualization. NFT technology endows this popular cultural symbol with attributes of value and price.
By establishing data ownership, it transforms from a cultural attribute into a tradable asset, allowing it to circulate freely in the market, thereby gradually generating economic benefits. In other words, metaverse brands enable users to profit economically from their pursuit of knowledge and aesthetics. This is a function that traditional brands completely lack.
Secondly, the narrative approach of metaverse brands has undergone significant changes, adopting trusted technologies such as blockchain, making brands part of the consensus economy and programmable society.
Compared to traditional brands, users are merely consumers who pay for a product. In contrast, metaverse brands represent a co-creation process, moving from closed to open, from results to processes, from stories to scenarios. Brand owners are the initiators, planners, operators, and rewarders of the brand, but not the sole owners.
Metaverse brands allow users to own the copyright of products, enabling users to improve products through community governance, transforming Membership into ownership. The brand is the member, and the member is the brand. Members are not objectified by the brand; instead, they become brand owners, creating their own sub-brands. They grow together with personal brands and community brands, sharing benefits and establishing a strong consensus.
In light of this, Wang Zhaoqian believes that in the new metaverse era, all physical products will be recreated and redefined in the metaverse world. For example, in the past trendy cultural products, content products such as street dance and rap music have already begun to gain popularity; consumer products like trendy clothing, sneakers, and trendy toys will also have new digital products to supplement and replace them. Therefore, Ake Technology plans to create the most influential digital fashion IP in the metaverse, using this as a starting point to gradually develop into the largest digital trendy product channel IP in China, empowering the entire cultural and entertainment fashion industry with related technologies. The entire path will resemble Pop Mart rather than overseas Bored Apes. Wang Zhaoqian stated that to succeed in China, one must fully localize.
Ake Technology Products
Ake Technology has currently built a product matrix of digital products, cultural and entertainment content, and e-commerce platforms. In terms of digital avatars, Ake Technology has launched the "Good Guy" digital brand, covering 10,000 unique PFP digital avatars, and is issuing them on both the ARCC platform and OpenSea. Good Guy targets high-net-worth user communities and will initially add users through an invitation system and whitelist. Unlike the initial development of Bored Ape Club, the invitation system will effectively block speculative users and scalpers from entering, allowing the community to maintain a high level of purity, with users mostly genuinely recognizing the new value brought by digital collectibles and the metaverse.
On the other hand, Ake Technology has collaborated with a Japanese trend master for a cross-border co-branding project, jointly launching a co-branded digital avatar IP and introducing physical hoodies, accessories, and other peripheral IP products. In the future, these will also be presented to users through both online and offline physical stores. Notably, Ake Technology has independently developed an electronic business card (a small ultra-thin display screen for showcasing digital collectibles), which Ake Technology calls a wearable digital collectible. Users who own ARCC and its partner platforms' digital collectible products can display them in any real-world scenario using this electronic product and mix them with physical clothing and bags, enriching the playability of digital collectibles.
For Ake Technology, in addition to creating high-quality digital trendy brands, the team has also collaborated with leading variety shows and celebrities. For example, in the 2022 program "China's Rap Peak," Ake Technology designed digital collectibles for the program's fans. Fans can earn digital badges by watching each episode, and after collecting all badges and minting digital collectibles, they will gain lottery opportunities and rights to watch offline rapper performances. These users will also be retained on Ake Technology's digital collectible platform, with the potential to become members of the Good Guy club in the future.
In addition, in November, Ake Technology will also host the largest Bored Ape-themed party in South China.
Investor Perspective
Mr. Lin Guochun, a partner at Dongtou Holdings, which has successfully invested in companies such as Tangyan Film and Television, Hero Mutual Entertainment, and Hongrenhui, stated that in the future, China will definitely see the emergence of metaverse brands at the level of Bored Apes, but it will require a period of localization, focusing more on its IP and trendy attributes rather than financial attributes. Its path will resemble a combination of Pop Mart and Dewu, fully integrating with the real economy to generate greater economic and social value.
