Samsung (SSUN +7.43%) recently made an interesting push into the metaverse. In this segment of "The Virtual Opportunities Show" on Motley Fool Live, recorded on Feb. 8, Fool contributors Rachel Warren and Jose Najarro discuss how the consumer electronics giant is using this virtual world to market its products.
Rachel Warren: Samsung unveiled a couple of different things within the metaverse. It has its own metaverse. One of the launches that caught my eye that happened there but I just saw a recent article about it on bitcoinst.com, and it was saying, "Samsung unveils new metaverse world, My House." Apparently, in the month since it has been launched, My House has attracted over four million visits.
This My House metaverse, apparently, it was launched in partnership with an app called ZEPETO, I'd never heard of it before, via Google (GOOG +2.80%) (GOOGL +3.42%) Play, and the support says, the number of people that use the application breached the four million mark. What's interesting about this particular metaverse that Samsung has created. According to this article, Samsung defines the platform as "a space decorating experience, where end-users are allowed to collect a range and decorate their houses using various products represented in virtual format."
You can quite literally have your virtual house with your virtual Samsung dishwasher, or your virtual Samsung refrigerator. I feel like this is a genius work of marketing. Kind of fascinating, I've never seen anything like this. I had no clue that this was an area that Samsung had ventured into. I feel like it also goes to show this trend that we're seeing, where more and more companies, even ones that you may not off the top of your head associate with the metaverse, are finding ways to become relevant within this next iteration of the internet.
The other thing I wanted to mention, and I want to hear your guys' thoughts, I guess Samsung also debuted another metaverse experience at CES 2022, what it's called Samsung 837X, they've called this an immersive world that can be explored virtually, that is modeled on the physical Samsung 837 flagship location in New York City.
Samsung has said, "the new metaverse experience brings its spirit and as an experiential playground, for people to discover the amazing possibilities where technology and culture collide." Apparently, this 837X metaverse, it's going to be around for a limited time only. I think throughout this year, I don't know if then they will introduce another iteration of it, but Samsung 837X for anyone who's interested, it debuted in Decentraland (MANA +4.10%) and the very popular blockchain-based metaverse.
Apparently, this is something where according to Samsung, "guests will embark on a journey where technology joins art, fashion, music, and sustainability." They have a sustainability forest in the metaverse, a portal where "guests can embark on a journey through millions of trees and have a mythic encounter." [LAUGHTER]
Then their annual event where they debut all these different products Galaxy Unpacked, I guess tomorrow will be the first time where this event is also held within the metaverse. You can attend it from this iteration of the metaverse for Samsung. Fascinating, still trying to wrap my head around it, but very clever. I've got to hand it to them. This is really cool. What do you guys think?
Jose Najarro: Yeah. Every time we think about the metaverse, we think I feel like that Ready Player One, or infused in some world and doing some crazy adventures. I do think the main, and unfortunately, the main way the metaverse is going to be used right now is, like this it's some form of advertising platform.
I was just taking a quick look Rachel at the Samsung World. Like you mentioned you can decorate your house or whatever my house, but most of the products there are Samsung products. [LAUGHTER] It's just them being able to showcase, "Hey, this is what you need to buy to make your house look nice." Then it is pretty interesting with that 837X. I'm nowhere near a professional in this market, but I hear Decentraland a lot. For them to be partnering up with that metaverse world, I think that's pretty interesting.
Samsung, I was also looking around them, they're also focusing it seems in a lot of things like bringing augmented reality filters to start some form of e-commerce way, so hey, if you want to try on some form of clothing, you can use some of the filters that they have to be able to showcase. I do think it right now, this metaverse is going to be a huge win for the advertising market.
