Kering reveals plans to explore opportunities in the metaverse
Kering's Chief Executive François-Henri Pinault has revealed plans for the group to take a proactive approach to turning the metaverse into reality for its consumers.
In an interview with CNBC on their full-year results, Pinault confirmed that Kering has a full team dedicated to web3 (the metaverse), an additional team at Gucci and another at Balenciaga.
He added that while others in the luxury space may wait and see what comes from web3, Kering, which manages Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga, is already focused on several key areas of innovation.
There is also an opportunity for Kering in terms of extension of its products, according to Pinault. This include NFTs (non-fungible tokens) linked with physical products, with the second layer providing opportunities for new products that does not exist in the physical world.
The third layer, which Pinault described as new services based on smart contracts, allows Kering to bring a completely new approach to its brands in the future. He further noted the potential for lifetime IP revenue through smart contracts, possibly in approval that royalty payments may be encoded into a smart contract NFTs on the blockchain, with payments being made to the creator in the event that a physical product and the corresponding digital token change ownership through secondary market sales.
Pinault also noted that some disruption could occur if web3 becomes a reality at scale. Speaking specifically about disruption, he cited the potential of web3 to decentralise data and give data ownership to e-commerce consumers.
