SHANGHAI, Sept. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The arena of digital collectibles has welcomed yet another powerful player featuring various merchandise rights, avant-garde design, and novel ways of socializing. On September 9, Soul App debuted its digital collectibles: the "Möbius" series consists of several types of avatars, which come with rights and benefits. A total of 15,996 of these avatars are offered at an opening price of between RMB 108 and 158. The launch has captured the imagination of many digital collectors, with pre-orders in great demand on SOUL. The Möbius collectibles can be used and interacted with as avatars on the social platform, creating huge collection and social networking value. SOUL’s addition of digital collectives to its avatar creation system has taken virtual identity in the social metaverse to the next level.
New collectible avatars bolster a sense of identity
Digital collectibles have both collection and aesthetic value as their ownership can be proven and transferred, and are usually integrated with trendy IPs, leading brands, pop culture and traditional art to kindle the interest of Gen-Z.
Crafted by SOUL’s veteran designer team, the debut digital collectibles center around symbols such as the Möbius strip and lightning pupils, with other constructs automatically generated by machine learning algorithms, creating several unique avatar characters that speak to Gen-Z. In design language, the Möbius strip embodies the possibility of the impossible: the two ends of the strip that were otherwise not supposed to meet are attached. Similarly, people’s physical and virtual identities are two worlds apart, until SOUL connects them together with one echoing and complementing the other.
SOUL Digital Collectible “Möbius”
In addition to offering the perfect collectors’ item, the Möbius series has also helped SOUL users create a virtual identity in the social metaverse. Ever since its launch, Soul has not required the use of real portrait photos for its profiles. When appearances, location and other external factors are thus eliminated, the social app enables its users to explore and express themselves by DIYing avatars without the pressure to create a perfect online persona. To better help its users fine-tune their virtual avatars and identities, SOUL continues to innovate its technology toolkit for 2D and 3D avatar creation. The charming Möbius collectibles, combined with social scenarios on the platform, can help users build a diversified identity world with visualized interest labels, enhancing their digital identities in the social metaverse.
SOUL has enriched its ways of engagement, merchandise rights and business model
Considering Gen-Z’s consumer behavior and mindset, the emerging social platform has tried a different engagement approach in its digital collectible campaign to attract more young users. For example, it offers a gamified activity where users can randomly obtain a collectible avatar with a purchase and unlock exclusive access to avatar display and icons as well as prioritized rights to 3D upgrades. Furthermore, the collectibles include secret versions awaiting discovery by users. Instead of launching a commonplace flash sale, SOUL offers users different levels of merchandise rights in line with their particular needs, providing a brand-new purchase experience.
The digital collectible debut is SOUL’s latest move to iterate its business model. Previously, it has rolled out value-added service, e-commerce and advertisement, among others. The release of the Möbius series shows that SOUL has what it takes to chart a course to new revenue streams. Going forward, the social app plans to join hands with other brands in digital collectible development in the form of co-branding campaigns and collaborated customization. This kind of collaboration is likely to emerge as a new growth engine, propelling SOUL ahead on its commercialization journey.
SOUL coined the idea of the "social metaverse" in 2021 and is committed to building an always-on virtual world parallel to the physical reality. Today, by building up its user base, encouraging the accumulation of social assets and investing in metaverse-specific technologies, SOUL has transformed into a fledging social metaverse that integrates virtual avatars, social assets, an immersive, inclusive experience and an economic system, attracting young users in droves. And its digital collectibles have made SOUL’s social metaverse more engaging and colorful.
The digital collectible market is booming. Publicly available data indicates that total sales of digital collectibles grew approximately 260-fold to $24.9 billion in 2021. Increasingly, Gen Zers, who focus more on non-material needs, have become the main buyers of digital products. And now SOUL’s Möbius series has won the favor of the younger generation, inspiring more imagination and vitality across the social metaverse.
