Robby Yung, CEO of Animoca Brands, says the Hong Kong-based gaming company intends to continue supporting the creator economy and promote interoperability through its investments and other initiatives in 2024 to promote mass adoption from Web3.
Speaking to Cointelegraph at the 12th Global Blockchain Congress in Dubai, Yung said Animoca believes gaming will be a major driver for Web3 adoption due to its widespread appeal. However, the company is also exploring adjacent verticals, such as education, to support creators through “efficient infrastructure and network effects.”
Yung emphasized that Web3 tools such as publisher non-fungible tokens (NFTs) allow content creators to monetize their work in a decentralized environment that fosters a more equitable and lucrative platform, saying:
“By empowering teachers, for example, through these publisher NFTs, we give them a set of tools that allows them to monetize the content they already create and do it in a way that is much simpler and that benefits them more directly. “
Publisher nft is a concept introduced by Animoca's educational technology subsidiary TinyTap, which is designed to combine co-publishing rights to specific educational content created and shared on the TinyTap platform. Yung added that such Web3 platforms allow educators to distribute content among peers and have direct relationships with their students.
He highlighted the challenges faced by creators on Web2 platforms, highlighting the lack of control and fair compensation. He commented: “(On) any type of creator-driven platform… artists typically don't make the kind of income they did with previous models.” He added, “We feel like that's really unfair,” emphasizing the need for a “frictionless experience” so creators can have direct relationships with their audience.
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Animoca also emphasizes the adoption of Web3 through interoperability within the Web3 sphere. Yung said that an important part of this effort is the Mocaverse project, which optimizes identity and gamification systems in different Web3 applications. Additionally, Yung is actively involved in the Open Metaverse Alliance for Web3 to promote industry-wide interoperability standards.
Yung said that over the next 12 months, the investment firm will also focus on the Mocaverse platform as one of the key topics on its agenda and “will try to expand that partnership universe as widely as possible.”
He also expressed confidence in its REVV Racing motorsports ecosystem and other Telegram initiatives, including the company's moves with casual gaming social platform Gamee and the TON Foundation.
Yung said that while Animoca does not employ a specific allocation strategy or investment target in terms of deal size and number, it tries to support as many good opportunities as possible.
“We are optimistic for 2024, so we will definitely continue to deploy resources into new businesses as well as the existing portfolio,” he said.
According to the executive, they have invested in more than 30 projects in 2023 so far and almost 500 to date in Animoca Brands and Animoca Ventures. He explained that approximately half of his investments go into infrastructure and tools, while the rest goes into content that is divided into games, metaverse, music, art and decentralized finance (DeFi), among others.
