“7 out of 10 people in Turkey have heard of the concept of metaverse before. But only 2 out of 10 people participating in the same study know what the metaverse is.”
Burak Soylu, CEO of GoArt, the local company that builds metaverses for brands, asked Webrazzi’s “Are You Ready for the Next Generation Web?” He spoke exclusively to Kriptokoin.com at the event. The company, which stepped into the Metaverse and works with many brands such as Kiğılı, Damat Tween, İşbank and Halkbank, is preparing to issue its own token in the coming period. Soylu said to companies that approach the metaverse with purely marketing motives, “As you know, brands follow marketing trends well and pretend to be there to cover their deficiencies in areas where they are not. This issue actually harms the industry.”
“The world is heading towards decentralization”
How did GoArt’s adventure into the metaverse begin?
We started to develop this technology in 2017. This was my childhood dream. Our main difference from other metaverses is that we use augmented reality technology. We strive to create a roadmap that will benefit brands and individuals. We cooperate with many brands in Turkey. We work with brands such as Kiğılı, Damat Tween, İşbank and Halkbank. We will announce a new collaboration next week. We carried out the “Shoulder to Shoulder” campaign with the Turkish Football Federation (TFF). We developed a metaverse and Web3 strategy for TFF. Our aim is for both our country and our company to take a correct position on the axis of this truly developing and changing world. The world is heading towards decentralization. The economy is now concentrating towards decentralization at some point. Therefore, it is necessary to give importance to Web3 technologies. With GoArt, we focus on the metaverse in these technologies. Our advantage is this: We read the world and products well. We follow a data-driven management strategy. Therefore, since the first day, we have been claiming to make GoArt a brand in the world that Turkey will be proud of.
Who developed GoArt’s metaverse technology? Is your software team completely local?
When we were developing our product in 2017, very few people in Turkey believed in location-based augmented reality technology. For two years, I did the R&D of my product with engineers in the USA and brought that know-how to Turkey. I parted ways with the engineers there and continued on my way in Turkey. We have transferred a knowhow here. 90% of our team is Turkish. We have foreign employees from many countries where we operate in international markets. Our software team is all local. We have an office in the USA, our sales continue there.
How do you read the brand’s approach to the metaverse? There are criticisms about many brands that have made a breakthrough in the Metaverse that they focus on the marketing of the business, not the technology.
According to research, 7 out of 10 people in Turkey have heard of the concept of metaverse before. But only 2 out of 10 people participating in the same study know what the metaverse is. As you know, brands follow marketing trends well and pretend to be there to cover their deficiencies in areas where they are not. This issue actually hurts the industry. The fact that they are in this area where a correct setup is not made makes the metaverse look wrong. You can’t be angry with the jeweler just because the gold is fake. Metaverse actually allows brands to reach audiences that they cannot reach. A brand should not be in the metaverse for marketing purposes only. We strive for brands to operate here by using techniques such as play-to-earn and gamification. The brands we work with are also satisfied with this. I think we offer many different benefits to the brands we cooperate with.
Why should brands be on the metaverse?
Metaverse is a space where brands can reach a new customer base. There are many people who do not follow conventional media and do not take part in mainstream media. Many 17-year-olds are in the gaming world. If you want to reach the young people of the new world, you should not look technological, you should be technological.
“We grew three times in 2022”
How are things going for GoArt? How much growth did you achieve in 2022?
Compared to the previous year, we grew three times in 2022. But our concern is not just to grow, but to be at the point in the world that does this job well. That’s why I don’t see a kamikaze marketing strategy right before we finish our product. If you do not have a working product, you will offend the incoming audience. We have a meticulous team that repeatedly tests whether our product works.
Do you offer companies just a gamification or meeting opportunity in your metaverse universe?
In our universe, companies open their own stores as well as holding events/meetings. We have three universes: present, past and future. Brands give time energy to avatars in the stores they set up in the present. Avatars, on the other hand, can travel to the past with the energy they receive. For example, when you go to the Colosseum in Italy, you can see 1500 years ago when you pick up your mobile phone and look at it. We present a metaverse where we can build it by hiding objects in the real world. If I put an object in a store and direct the customer there with the help of augmented reality technology, we present the move-to-earn (win as you move) or play-to-earn (win as you play) models if I take them from their current location.
As you play or move, the token economy needs to be set up correctly in win models, right? As a matter of fact, we have witnessed many companies failing to establish the token economy correctly in the past.
Companies have a close interest in digital currencies, which are the new commodity tools. However, it is not possible for digital currencies without an economy to survive. For example, we did not issue a token of GoArt.
Why didn’t you remove it?
We are in constant consultation with our consultants. We didn’t release it at the time when the Metaverse was most popular (including during the bull market). While the coins of the companies operating in the Metaverse have made 10x, 20x, we did not offer tokens. The reason is this: If I remove the coin without building the economy in which the cryptocurrency will be used, I will make investors lose. To avoid this, I first need to build the token’s economy well. Inflation risks need to be managed well. We have drawn such a roadmap for ourselves and we are thinking of finishing it. According to the market conditions, we will supply our token as soon as possible.
How do you evaluate the public’s approach to metaverse and blockchain technologies?
We find the metaverse approach in the statements of our President quite correct. He made statements that technology and the metaverse are a hundred years old. I find the government’s approach to this issue very sincere. I hope more successful works will come out.
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