The Sandbox has decided to join the real world in 2022. The metaverse — one of the top four in the world — created a pop-up in Hong Kong to support the growth of its user base in the city. It will feature workshops from local design studios, conversations about the metaverse, and creative content videos.
Residents of Hong Kong who elect to open an account with The Sandbox at the HK pop-up will receive opportunities to win various prizes. Those rewards include a 1×1 The Sandbox land parcel, an NFT house, and regular promotions of 1,000 $SAND tokens, with 1 $SAND currently valued at $1.33 USD.
The local design studios leading the metaverse workshops are Index Game, Pangu by Kenal, Metalympics, and UFO School, among others. The Sandbox designed the workshops to appeal to a wide-ranging audience, including school children, university students, adults, and those leading the top corporations in the city.
Companies, educational institutions, and other entities will participate in the pop-up. Some of the bigger names are The University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong, NFT Association of Hong Kong, and the Rotary Club of Elite Orient.
Sebastien Borget, the COO and co-founder of The Sandbox, said the new Hong Kong pop-up will allow the city’s residents to explore an open metaverse and join others in exploring new activities. He added that the pop-up’s partners will share new ways for users to develop avatars and “interact more extensively.”
This is not The Sandbox’s first foray into Hong Kong. The company has created “Mega City” (Hong Kong’s cultural hub) in the metaverse. In April of this year, it held a “LAND” drive so that users could stake out a part of the neighborhood to call their own.
The Sandbox Makes News in 2022
The Sandbox, like all top metaverses, saw a big upswing in interest after Mark Zuckerberg revealed his metaverse ambitions in 2021. And although it has fallen on hard times like most of Web3 in 2022, it has still made the news. Here are three top stories Rarity Sniper has covered about The Sandbox this year.
Last week, the Queen of Crypto partnered with The Sandbox to build a digital replica of her Malibu mansion in the metaverse. There, Paris Hilton will host parties, sell non-fungible tokens, and connect with her fans in an entirely new way.
Three weeks ago, South Korea’s No. 1 bank KEB Hana revealed that it had partnered with The Sandbox. The bank will open up a virtual branch in that metaverse, helping users buy and sell digital plots of land. It will also provide basic banking services and investment advice from its metaverse location.
And four weeks ago, Playboy announced a partnership with The Sandbox to build a virtual Playboy mansion in its metaverse. The Playboy “MetaMansion” will have special utility for holders of Playboy’s NFT collection, permitting them “special access” to the mansion.
The Sandbox Hong Kong pop-up is a different endeavor from the metaverse as it sets foot in the real world. But it shows that The Sandbox has not slowed in innovating, and given the amount of news it makes in partnerships, it may not stop anytime soon.