CoinWorld reported:
Author: Zen, PANews
On July 1st, Amber Japan officially changed its name to S.BLOX. After being acquired by Amber Group, a Singapore market maker, in February 2022, and subsequently acquired by Quetta Web, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Group, in August 2023, this company that operates the cryptocurrency trading service platform “WhaleFin” has officially become part of Sony Group.
Sony, which aims to “inspire the world with the power of creativity and technology,” has business sectors that cover the “inspiring people” gaming and network services business, music, film, and television, the “connecting people” entertainment, technology and service business, imaging and sensing solutions, and the “supporting people” medical and financial services business. In order to highlight the functions of the group’s major industries, which cover financial services, gaming, and entertainment, Sony Corporation changed its name to “Sony Group Corporation” in April 2021, the first name change in over 60 years.
Among the various businesses, Sony’s gaming and network services, music, and film and television entertainment businesses have developed rapidly in the past decade. In the fiscal year 2021, their overall operating income exceeded half of Sony Group’s consolidated operating income for the first time, and their overall operating profit accounted for two-thirds of the group’s consolidated profit. With the development and iteration of blockchain technology, especially the rise of metaverse and NFT closely related to entertainment products, Sony has also begun to cautiously explore and expand into the Web3 field.
Metaverse
As a hot term in the tech industry, the concept of “metaverse” has entered the vision of many companies in various industries since 2021. Sony, as an entertainment giant, is no exception. In its 2022 fiscal year corporate strategy, Sony expects metaverse to grow and plans to create new entertainment experiences in this field. Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida also revealed that metaverse is a social space and real-time network space where games, music, movies, and animations intersect, and is interested in launching more products with metaverse experiences for users.
After targeting the hot metaverse track at that time, Sony quickly made arrangements. First, in February 2022, it signed a three-year cooperation agreement with Manchester City, the champion of the English Premier League, to jointly create the world’s first metaverse football stadium. Then, in April, it was revealed that it and KIRKBI, the investment company behind LEGO, each invested $1 billion, totaling $2 billion, in Epic Games, placing a heavy bet on the metaverse. At the end of the same year, Sony acquired AI-based data analysis and visualization company Beyond Sports, which positioned itself as a metaverse sports portal, providing real-time digital sports participation solutions for leagues, broadcasters, brands, and end consumers, and providing sports content from traditional media to metaverse communication.
NFT
There has been no unified consensus in the industry on what exactly the metaverse is and which technologies belong to this concept. In the future depicted by many people, NFT with interoperability and digital asset attributes is one of the essential elements of the metaverse, and this technology is believed to bring true digital ownership, economic activities, and social interactions to the metaverse. In addition, in the visible future, NFT technology has a wide range of applications in entertainment products such as games, music, and film and television. Therefore, since 2022, Sony has been interested in the NFT track.
In April 2022, Sony subsidiary Sony Network Communications established an NFT business company in Singapore. The company is a joint venture between Sony and software development company Sun Asterisk, with Sony Network Communications holding a 70% stake. The newly established company aims to provide maximum value for customers, creators, and end users in Web3 by utilizing NFT technology. According to the company’s website, its business includes “NFT business strategy planning support,” “NFT issuance support,” “unique token issuance support,” “NFT game development support,” and “NFT promotion support.”
Sony’s music division, Sony Music, has been exploring the application of NFT technology since at least 2021 and participated in a $30 million Series A financing round for the NFT marketplace MakersPlace that year. In 2022, it first partnered with the Solana-based NFT platform Snowcrash (which has transformed into an AI-based music production platform) and announced plans to launch a series of NFTs featuring legendary musicians such as Bob Dylan. It then established a Greater China division for RCA Records to explore opportunities in streaming, NFT, and metaverse, and signed contracts with singers Jackson Wang and Liling Huang. It also submitted trademark applications related to NFTs for the logo of Columbia Records, planning to use the trademark for NFT-supported media, music and podcast production, artist management, and music distribution services.
In terms of gaming, Sony is focusing on developing NFT-related patents. The published patents include “Tracking Unique Digital Assets in Games Using Tokens on a Distributed Ledger” and “NFT Framework for Transferring and Using Digital Assets Between Gaming Platforms,” the former describing a system and technology that can track digital assets between different hardware platforms and publishers, and the latter exploring a method for using and trading NFTs across platforms. Sony also stated that it will build an NFT and blockchain system that can be applied to the PlayStation (PS) platform ecosystem.
Infrastructure
In 2023, Sony seems to no longer be satisfied with just developing NFT technology and has further expanded its business scope in the blockchain and Web3 industries.
In early 2023, Sony Network Communications, a business unit of Sony Group, collaborated with Astar Network, a multi-chain smart contract network, to launch a Web3 incubation program for projects focused on practical NFTs and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). The program took place from March to June, and the selected projects may be considered for investment by Sony Network Communications. The incubation program was organized by Startale Labs, headquartered in Singapore, which is the development company of Astar Network founded by Sota Watanabe, CEO of Astar.
However, after the end of the Web3 incubation program, the organizing party Startale Labs received a clear investment of $3.5 million from Sony Network Communications. In September of the same year, the two parties further deepened their cooperation and established a joint venture subsidiary called “Sony Network Communications Labs Pte. Ltd.” The new company will focus on the research and development of blockchain technology. Sota Watanabe stated that the new joint venture subsidiary will promote the development of Sony Chain, which has the potential to surpass Base, the Layer2 network previously released by Coinbase.
Earlier this year, Startale Labs raised an additional $3.5 million in Series A follow-on financing, with investors including UVM Signum Blockchain Fund, Sony Network Communications, and Samsung Next Ventures. The post-financing valuation was $63.5 million. In addition, according to Singapore’s business information platform BIZFILE, the shares of Startale Labs held by Sony Network Communications have been transferred to Sony Group, symbolizing another step forward for blockchain in Sony’s business strategy.
Finance
In 2024, Sony began to expand its financial services to the cryptocurrency industry.
In March of this year, Sony Bank, a subsidiary of Sony Financial Group, announced its plan to launch “Sony Bank CONNECT” in the summer of 2024. This new smartphone application aims to provide privileges to digital securities and NFT holders, designed to allow any user to easily and securely access exciting experiences. The application will be connected to the market “SNFT” operated by SNFT Corporation, where users can display and enjoy the NFTs they hold in SNFT.
With the product launch, Sony plans to provide digital content to customers who have participated in past activities and have obtained NFTs, purchased specific digital securities, or answered questionnaires. In addition, they are also developing a blockchain-based wallet and plan to continue expanding its functions based on customer feedback after the release. Sony Bank stated, “Sony Bank CONNECT will continue to expand its functions based on customer needs after its release, and contribute to the future development of the web3 entertainment field in Japan.”
In addition, in April of this year, Sony Bank began concept verification and planned to issue a stablecoin pegged to fiat currency. The experiment will be conducted on the Polygon blockchain. It is reported that Sony is exploring the use of stablecoins to promote the company’s intellectual property rights in the gaming and sports fields due to the advantages of reduced payment and remittance costs. The stablecoin experiment by Sony will assess any legal issues associated with yen-backed stablecoins and is expected to last for several months. The development will be entrusted to SettleMint, a blockchain company based in Belgium.
The latest development in cryptocurrency and financial services is the acquisition of Amber Japan mentioned at the beginning by Sony, and its renaming to S.BLOX this month. The contents that will be reformed or optimized include UI screen redesign, new application release, and expansion of supported currencies and functions.
Since 2021, Sony has been continuously expanding the boundaries of its exploration of Web3, from metaverse and NFT to building infrastructure public chains, and now entering the cryptocurrency field. For a large entertainment conglomerate like Sony, integrating emerging technologies into its various business sectors with caution is the key to avoiding excessive risks and being left far behind due to conservatism. This inclusive attitude towards emerging technologies may be the key to its longevity of over 60 years.
