KingData News: The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creators are hard at work on open standards to enable NFTs to migrate between Otherside and other metaverses. The goal is ultimately to create an open world in which, “everyone is able to have a shared fun experience,” Yuga Labs CEO Nicole Muniz said.

KingData News: Facebook owner Meta reported that its metaverse division Reality Labs posted a $3.7 billion loss in the third quarter of this year. That brings Reality Labs’ year-to-date losses to a staggering $9.4 billion. Meta said that it does not “anticipate that Reality Labs operating losses” will grow significantly next year. Most recently, Meta shareholder Altimeter Capital Management’s CEO suggested in a blog post that the company slash its workforce by at least 20% in addition to reducing investment, primarily by limiting Reality Labs’ expenditures to no more than $5 billion a year.

KingData News: At a surprise session of the 90th INTERPOL General Assembly in New Delhi, the global police organization unveiled the first ever Metaverse specifically designed for law enforcement worldwide. Fully operational, the INTERPOL Metaverse allows registered users to tour a virtual facsimile of the INTERPOL General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon, France without any geographical or physical boundaries, interact with other officers via their avatars, and even take immersive training courses in forensic investigation and other policing capabilities.

KingData News: Konami Digital Entertainment is looking to expand into the web3 and metaverse space via new hires. The company is currently recruiting "a wide range of talent for "system construction" and "service development" to provide new experiences such as WEB3 and Metaverse." The company explicitly makes clear that it plans to "launch a service where players can trade their in-game NFTs (digital items) through a unique distribution platform using blockchain." Konami is "developing a unique digital item distribution platform that conforms to the 'Guidelines for Blockchain Games' set forth by the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association, Japan Online Game Association, and the Mobile Content Forum." Konami sold a collection of NFTs via OpenSea — earning more than $160,000, at the time in January.

KingData News: Last week, Microsoft internally announced the formation of a new team, Industrial Metaverse Core, that plans to help customers create immersive new software interfaces for operating the industrial control systems behind electrical power plants, industrial robotics and transportation networks. The group’s offerings for industrial customers will include technology from Bonsai, a startup Microsoft acquired in 2018, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

KingData News: Meta’s VR social network Horizon Worlds — the company’s flagship “metaverse” app — is suffering from too many quality issues and even the team building it isn’t using it very much, according to internal memos obtained by The Verge. In a follow-up memo dated September 30th, Shah said that employees still weren’t using Horizon enough, writing that a plan was being made to “hold managers accountable” for having their teams use Horizon at least once a week. “Everyone in this organization should make it their mission to fall in love with Horizon Worlds. You can’t do that without using it. Get in there. Organize times to do it with your colleagues or friends, in both internal builds but also the public build so you can interact with our community.”

KingData News: BlackRock Inc. is aiming to track companies that have exposure to the metaverse via the iShares Future Metaverse Tech and Communications ETF, according to a Thursday filing. The fund, for which fees and a ticker weren’t yet listed, might include firms that have products or services tied to virtual platforms, social media, gaming, digital assets and augmented reality. On September 29, BlackRock announced the launch of a new European blockchain ETF.

KingData News: Yasushi Akimoto, a Japanese music producer with a successful track record of promoting girl groups AKB48 and Nogizaka46, is jumping into a J-pop metaverse project with local crypto company Overs Co. Ltd. Akimoto will serve as the general producer of the project that will launch a new idol band on the virtual platform in 2023. Overs announced that the metaverse will be financed through an initial exchange offering (IEO). The metaverse idol group is planned to debut in winter of 2023.

KingData News: Tencent Cloud – the cloud business of global technology company Tencent, today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Strange Universe Technology, a Singapore-based Web 3.0 company, to explore various opportunities in creating experiences in the virtual world. The agreement also aims to create an immersive and integrated platform that helps businesses adapt and thrive in a virtual environment.

KingData News: Sports company PUMA has unveiled its first ever metaverse website experience, called Black Station, which features exclusive NFTs with limited edition redeemable physical sneakers, as part of its 'FUTROGRADE' show during New York Fashion Week.

KingData News: U.S. auto brand Ford has filed 19 trademark applications related to the metaverse and NFT, ranging from virtual cars, trucks, vans and apparel to NFT online stores, according to U.S. Trademark Office trademark registrar Mike Kondoudis.

KingData News: U.S. Trademark Office trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis tweeted that Sony Music filed a metaverse-related trademark application for Columbia Records, planning to use its trademark for NFT-supported media, music and podcast production, artist management and music distribution services, among other things.

KingData News: Javelin Music and Thinbox Mints have joined forces to create the "Jay Chou Limited Collection DEMO Space" in the music universe. The music DEMO space consists of 5 selected DEMOs, including Jay Chou's classic representative song DEMOs such as "Celadon", "Love Before the West", "Sunny Day", "Stranded", and a never released and highly completed hidden DEMO track "New York Subway".

KingData News: Fast food chain Taco Bell and Decentraland, a metaverse platform, have partnered to offer a metaverse wedding experience to newlyweds in the United States. Engaged couples can reportedly enter a contest between Aug. 25 and Sept. 6 to win the brand's first legal Decentraland meta-universe wedding package and receive an NFT at the end of it.

KingData News: SensorTower reports that during the first half of 2022, 170 million global metaverse apps have been downloaded, with gaming apps accounting for 110 million, or 67.3%, of those downloads. The first half of the year saw $650 million in revenue from metaverse applications, with gaming applications accounting for 94% of that revenue.

KingData News: Teaming up with designer digital closet pioneer DressX, founded by Daria Sharapova and Natalia Modenova, and Tomorrowland, the futuristic techno rave party based in Belgium, Coca-Cola will inspire clothing made to be worn in the Metaverse, presumably at a rave.

KingData News: Meta (formerly Facebook) announced its second quarter 2022 results, with Reality Labs, the core division of Meta's metaverse strategy, reporting a loss of $2.806 billion on revenue of $452 million in the second quarter, and a year-to-date loss of $5.766 billion. In addition, Meta's total revenue for the quarter was $28.822 billion.

KingData News: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed suit to stop Facebook from acquiring Unlimited and its virtual reality fitness app, Supernatural. The agency alleges that Meta and Zuckerberg are planning to expand Meta’s virtual reality empire with this attempt to illegally acquire a dedicated fitness app that proves the value of virtual reality to users. The complaint details Facebook's acquisition of virtual reality companies, going back to its purchase of Oculus back in 2014.

KingData News: Recently, Meta commissioned Analysis Group, an international economic consulting firm, to prepare a metaverse white paper. The report says that if metaverse technologies are adopted starting in 2022, they will contribute $3.01 trillion to global GDP by 2031, with one-third ($1.04 trillion) coming from the Asia-Pacific region. The report mentions that industry analysts have already estimated the potential value and market size of the metaverse, and they predict that the metaverse market will be in the range of $800 billion - $2,000 billion in the next few years. When the metaverse is widely adopted, the metaverse market will be between $3 trillion - $30 trillion, with the most optimistic estimates exceeding $80 trillion.

KingData News: From 2021 to 2026, the metaverse real estate market is expected to grow by $5.37 billion, at a compound annual growth rate of 61.74%, driven by the growing popularity of mixed reality and cryptocurrencies, according to a report from global market research firm Technavio.

KingData News: The Crown Prince of Dubai tweeted his latest metaverse strategy, which plans to create more than 40,000 virtual jobs by 2027. In addition, it plans to generate $4 billion in revenue over the next five years. The metaverse and blockchain sector currently contributes $500 million to Dubai's national economy, according to the program, which also seeks to develop official Dubai metaverse use cases and applications.

KingData News: Burberry, the British luxury fashion brand, said that it has launched virtual handbags on social gaming platform Roblox, inspired by one of the brand's physical handbag designs. Community members on Roblox can purchase and use the bags to dress their avatars. The virtual bags cost just a few dollars, which is paid in Robux, the platform's currency. Each handbag is accompanied by an exclusive emote.

KingData News: Korean entertainment company SM Entertainment announced the establishment of Studio Kwangya, a company specializing in metaverse content production, with business areas including post-production, VFX production, virtual human, virtual reality (VR) and music video production.

KingData News: According to CincoDias, the Spanish government will provide more than €3.8 million in funding for projects by SMEs and freelancers related to Web3 and the metaverse. This initiative is part of Spain's "Digital Spain 2026" strategic plan. According to the Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, the business related to virtual worlds in the economy is expected to exceed $1 billion by 2026.

KingData News: Samsung Electronics today announced the launch of Samsung Space Tycoon (“Space Tycoon”), a virtual playground built inside the global metaverse platform Roblox. Space Tycoon is a virtual space where users can create and play games and share experiences using Samsung Electronics’ products together with alien characters in space, taking design and functionality cues from business simulation ‘tycoon’ genre.

KingData News: Interest into the metaverse has skyrocketed in 2022, nearly every week there is a new report of another organisation investing into Web3 or creating a new line of NFTs, a new McKinsey report breaks down what is behind this bourgeoning investment. The report, Value Creation in the metaverse, highlights that already more than US$120 billion has been poured into the metaverse in 2022, more than doubling the 2021 total amount of US$57 billion. From those investments, the investors behind the funds can be split into three categories: large technology companies(Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple and Google), venture capital and corporations and brands, according to the report.

KingData News: Czech presidential candidate Karel Janecek will launch his 2023 campaign in Somnium Space, a metaverse project powered by the Polygon blockchain network.

KingData News : KPMG U.S. and Canada are opening a metaverse “collaboration hub” to connect employees, clients, and others with Web3, a so-called decentralized version of the internet built on blockchain, the firm says. It’s collectively making a $30 million investment this year in Web3 experiences, with the metaverse “hub” as the “signature piece.” “The way we look at it, it’s not just augmented reality and virtual reality. It’s really the next iteration of the internet. It really encompasses everything that the internet would encompass, but it’s more interactive,” Cliff Justice, KPMG U.S. leader of enterprise innovation, told Fortune of the metaverse and Web3.

Metaverse-Related Economy Could Be as Much as $13T: Citi KingData News: On June 8, CoinDesk reported, according to a report from Citi, the total addressable market of the metaverse could be as high as 13 trillion dollars. Theoretically, argued the report, the total addressable market (TAM) of the metaverse should be calculated by adding all internet-related revenue to that of the physical-world activities being displaced. Citi identified early investment opportunities in five important building blocks: 1) Operating systems connecting people and content; 2) Blockchain that decentralizes economic systems and ownership of digital assets; 3) Natural user interfaces e.g., voice control and gestures for greater user immersion; 4) extended reality (XR) headsets; 5) Cloud networking infrastructure. Among the long list of stocks poised to benefit are the usual suspects, such as Meta (FB), Apple (APPL), Nvidia (NVDA) and Intel (INTC), but also telcos, including Verizon (VZ), T-Mobile (TMUS) and AT&T (T), according to the report.

PCCW-HKT, First Hong Kong-Based CMT Partner of the Sandbox, Plans to Launch World’s First Virtual 5G Mobile Network KingData News: PCCW (SEHK: 0008) and HKT (SEHK: 6823) have partnered with The Sandbox, becoming the first Hong Kong-based integrated communications, media and technology (CMT) organisation to join the metaverse and open a new frontier in the digital world. PCCW and HKT have purchased virtual land in Mega City, the Hong-Kong inspired neighbourhood in The Sandbox. As part of their foray into the metaverse, they are set to launch the world’s first virtual 5G mobile network and transform traditional film, TV and music content into a Web3-enabled new form of entertainment.