South African media giant Primedia announced their purchase of virtual land in Africarare’s Ubuntuland, the African Metaverse
- Primedia’s plan is to create new ways to engage with audiences and customers in the new frontier
- The main point of interest will be seeing how a traditional media player finds its way into the web 3.0 world
- The company owns multiple recognisable brands, including Primedia Outdoor (billboards), Primedia Broadcasting and the popular award-winning news outlet Eyewitness news
South African media giant Primedia announced their purchase of virtual land in Africarare’s Ubuntuland, the African Metaverse. The company owns multiple recognisable brands, including Primedia Outdoor (billboards), Primedia Broadcasting and the popular award-winning news outlet Eyewitness news.
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The news was announced during the inaugural PrimeX event. The event was held in Johannesburg. According to the press release from Primedia, they will join the African metaverse with representation for all their assets. This includes popular regional radio stations 947, 702 (talk radio), Kfm 94.5 and CapeTalk.
The plan for Primedia is to create new ways to engage with audiences and customers in the new frontier, the metaverse. The metaverse affords new opportunities for advertisers and audiences alike, and Primedia wants to be on the pulse in this regard. They join recognisable brands such as Nedbank and MTN, which have also taken their first steps in the African metaverse created by Africarare.
Advertising is the play for Primedia in the Metaverse
Primedia did offer some details as to what activities they will be getting up to in Ubuntuland. They specifically virtual billboards, which according to them, will also be large-scale in the metaverse.
Perhaps it was a little obvious that an advertising company would venture into advertising in the metaverse. They are aiming a little higher than that as they intend to position themself as the sales house for the African metaverse.
Primedia, Sales house for the Africaran Metaverse
The main point of interest will be seeing how a traditional media player finds its way into the web 3.0 world. The are many differences between the traditional mass media marketing world and the web 2.0 world.
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Even in that, we’ve started to see a crackdown on user activity tracking used to determine which adverts are shown to users. And a web 3.0 world could have even more differences. Primedia making a move early gives them an opportunity to learn quickly.
The other question that is related to the first one is how well they will blend their real-world assets with virtual-world assets in Africarare’s Ubuntuland. Radio, for example, still has a place in the world, that is without a doubt. However, the internet doesn’t quite accommodate in the same form.
Internet radio exists, but the on-demand nature of the internet means radio has adapted to fit in. So how will radio adapt to the metaverse and web 3.0, if at all?
The growth of the African Metaverse
The metaverse is not only growing as a word, now being used by people regularly and experiencing a 7200% jump in search frequency in 2021. Investment in the metaverse or Metaverse-related companies is growing. In 2021 metaverse-related companies garnered US$10 billion worth of funding, more than doubling the funding received in 2020.
We’ve also started seeing big players with presumably deep pockets dipping their toes into the metaverse waters. In addition to the aforementioned companies, M&C Saatchi Abel and World Data Lab have also acquired plots of land in Africarare’s Ubuntuland.
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Of course, the big question is what’s in it for them. With Primedia, it is a little easier to imagine what their objectives are for the metaverse. Advertising has been dominant in to the offline world and transitioned very well to the online world. So a successful offline advertising company moving into the online world only makes sense.
