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Air World Limited, a home-grown tech start-up has taken Hong Kong by storm just two months after launching AiR Metaverse (AiR) in April. AiR completed its first round of virtual building NFT pre-sale with 100 iconic infrastructures, which generated over HKD $10 million. On top of that, the Metaverse plans with Times Square and Plaza Hollywood were met with unprecedented success. Meanwhile, AiR is preparing for the launch of Metaverse Season 0 in collaboration with numerous local brands, celebrities and influencers.

First NFT Collection Landed Record Number Sales

In the first round of the invite-only pre-sale, over 100 available buildings NFTS were sold. The sale attracted multiple shopping malls, real estate developers, retail brands, celebrities and artists who are now a part of AiR’s growing portfolio, despite the recent poor performance of the crypto and NFT market.

Many real estate developers have expressed keen interest in the concept of AiR virtual buildings. Kai Long Group, which owns the property right of Hennessy Road 333, is collaborating with AiR to not only tokenise the physical property into a building NFT, but also fragmentise the NFT into Unit NFTs. The fragmented tokens are given to property owners as “Utility tokens” for a possible upcoming DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation).

Terence Chow, CEO at Air World Limited, said: “We were surprised by the sales of the buildings NFTs. Within a week, we recorded a total sale of over HKD $4 million. Every NFT was sold in the second week of the private sale. We slowed down the sale of building NFTs because we did not aim for a short-term profit. We are going to launch Utility NFTs in the long run. Soon, we will announce AiR Citizen NFTs, which will carry out game plays and move into virtual buildings for Play-to-Earn”.

An Unprecedented Success of AiR Metaverse with Two Shopping Malls in Hong Kong

Over the past two months, AiR collaborated with Times Square and Plaza Hollywood which was very well-received by the general public. Together with Times Square and local NFT collection “Bunny Warriors”, AiR leveraged O2O (Offline to Online) gamification to connect the virtual reality with Bunny Warriors Exhibition and the NFT pop-up store.

AiR and Hollywood Plaza, meanwhile, collaborated on the first ever Metaverse-themed shopping mall loyalty program gamification titled “MetaGreen Village Adventure,” where players can scan in-mall QR codes and be connected to three eco-game zones with interactive missions to complete, motivating spending and also VIC registration.

After its launch in April, AiR recorded over 300,000 players entering one of the Metaverse scenes. In total, more than 4 million virtual items were acquired by players and over 20,000 prizes were given out. This goes to show that the O2O Metaverse model created by AiR is going to be a big hit in the near future.

Chow added: “Our success with AiR within two months of its launch has reaffirmed our belief in the O2O Metaverse model. Undoubtedly, the possibilities of online experiences are limitless. In addition, Web3 technology brings about a never-seen-before unique experience for everyone. But we believe in building offline connections through real-life interactive experiences to boost sales and loyalty for businesses. For example, we are designing an interactive experience for a medium-sized restaurant chain. Players can learn to make virtual Hong Kong-style milk tea in our Metaverse…”

AiR Season 0 to Include SMEs and Plans to Expand Internationally

AiR is preparing for the launch of AiR Metaverse Season 0, which will bring in business partners from all walks of life. Apart from Times Square and Plaza Hollywood, AiR has reached collaboration agreements with the following:

• Focus Media HK Ltd., one of the biggest Hong Kong outdoor advertising platforms
• BCT Group, Hong Kong’s largest MPF product provider
• CGA eSports Stadium
• Ani-com & Games Hong Kong 2022
• LOST Escape Room
• City University of Hong Kong
• MegaBox
• ChargeSpot, Hong Kong’s leading power bank sharing service provider
• fitness influencer Coffee Lam
• Home-grown IP “Hong Kong Machines”
• Local basketball comic UBL

Together with NFT partners such as Bunny Warriors, BullBullBear (BBB), Blue Ark, BeastFromFeast (BFF) & QR8, AiR will roll out more O2O experiences that will take over the city’s Metaverse ecosystem this year.

Making Metaverse Accessible to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Among the many brands and businesses that are in negotiation with AiR now, some of them are home-grown small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). AiR firmly believes that Metaverse should consist of more than just the big enterprises with large capital and manpower.

Take Sam’s Tailor as an example. It is a local bespoke tailor shop that has been around for 65 years. Founded in 1957, the home-grown tailor shop made uniforms for British soldiers stationed in Hong Kong. It has built a reputation by providing bespoke suits to world-famous celebrities and world leaders, including Michael Jackson and Bruno Mars.

Yuk Tse, Co-Founder of Air World Limited said: “When we received an email from Roshan of Sam’s Tailor, we were very flattered. They have a longstanding history in Hong Kong and they were frequented by countless international celebrities and artists. Although Roshan did not know exactly what Web3 and Metaverse are, he would still like to be a part of AiR. This gives us the idea to include SMEs and local heritage in the Metaverse.”

AiR is in talks with a platform that connects a great many of SMES, in hopes that this will bring thousands of businesses to AiR by the end of the year. Yuk added that AiR is planning to expand internationally to Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand to create a metaverse ecosystem in Asia.

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