“The internet as we know, has gone through three phases, and we’ve lived those three phases,” as per Sukrit Singh, a media and communications industry veteran with over 20 years of experience.
Singh is part of the founding team of XP&DLAND and METAFORM, two entities that are helping brands embrace the immersive opportunities of Web3. Among sporting events, he has led 10 IPL opening ceremonies, South Asian Games, and Khelo India.
Web3’s unique features
Highlighting how Web3 marks the entry of a “decentralized internet” that offers ownership and anonymity, Singh pointed out:
Taking note of its unique three-dimensional nature, he added:
Unlike Virtual Reality (VR) – frequently mentioned in the context of Web3 – the metaverse is “perpetual” unless taken down. Singh said:
“IPL marketing primitive at best”
Thanks to XP&DLAND, Gujarat Titans became the first IPL team to launch on the metaverse. Fans could engage in virtual meet-and-greets, take a tour of the Titans’ dugout and locker room, or explore the stadium.
So, was creating Titans’ metaverse prohibitively expensive? Singh, who is of the opinion that “IPL marketing is primitive at best,” answers to the contrary, saying:
Taking sports into the metaverse
It is not just cricket that is experimenting with Web3. Singh is already working with a “large wrestling franchise” and is bullish about “taking sports and events into the metaverse.” He said:
A key part of this behavior adoption involves replicating fandom in the virtual world.
NFTs and “tokenizing” fandom
Singh predicts that “fandom is going to be tokenized in the future” with the creation of various categories like “gold fan” or “silver fan” with varied rights and privileges attached to each.
The first wave of Web3 saw the emphasis on Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) being used akin to trading cards. Asserting that NFTs need to have underlying utility, aspirational value, or a feeling of vanity or pride for their ownership to be meaningful, Singh said:
Web3 still a work in progress
From less bulky wearables to the creation of brand new metaverses, Singh says we are “1000 days away” from the Web3 of our imagination.
There also remains a natural persisting tendency among users to expect the virtual world to replicate the real world, which Singh cautions against by saying:
It is this younger generation that Singh’s METAFORM venture is targeting as it builds metaverses in-house from scratch.
Since it’s early days yet, the man nicknamed “Webzero” doesn’t wish to speculate on the prospective size of the Web3 sports market. “We are going to be investing for 1000 days. We are in the evangelizing phase. So it’s not that we’ll lose money but we won’t make much money [either].”
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