Yahoo Taiwan says it will open a new NFT market at the end of March. The web services company is working with the crypto wallet maker Blocto on its first venture into the NFT industry.
To monitor the quality of NFTs on its platform, Yahoo Taiwan opted to create a curated NFT marketplace. Anyone who wants to mint NFTs on the Yahoo Taiwan NFT Store must get approval from Yahoo Taiwan.
The first NFT collection that will drop on Yahoo Taiwan’s NFT Store will feature the company’s mascot “A-Hoo.” Blocto says anyone who buys an A-Hoo NFT will be able to re-list it on its NFT platform BloctoBay.
According to a CoinTelegraph report, Yahoo Taiwan and Blocto want to make their new NFT market accessible to people who aren’t experienced with crypto investing. Executives at Blocto’s parent company Portto said they want to make shopping on the Yahoo Taiwan NFT Store “as easy as shopping on any e-commerce platform.”
The Yahoo Taiwan NFT Store will let customers pay for NFTs with credit cards. For greater convenience, Yahoo Taiwan says it will add more fiat-focused payments in the upcoming months.
Blocto and Yahoo Taiwan also stressed the importance of keeping their NFT prices reasonable. However, there’s no word on whether Yahoo Taiwan will put a price cap on the NFTs that customers create and trade.
There are also reports that some Yahoo Taiwan NFTs may have special features on the platform. For instance, some NFT collectors may get early access to new NFT drops or bonus points in Yahoo Taiwan’s rewards system.
In addition to Yahoo Taiwan, Blocto has helped major brands like CNN and MotoGP with their NFT collections. Blocto’s parent Portto has also attracted many significant investors in the crypto space, including Shark Tank star Mark Cuban and game developer Animoca Brands.
Asian Tech Companies are Becoming More Web3-Friendly
Yahoo Taiwan is the latest in a long list of major Asian tech firms embracing Web3 technologies. For instance, the Taiwanese company HTC recently announced its working on a premium “metaverse smartphone.” HTC is also famous for developing a blockchain-enabled phone with a built-in crypto wallet.
In early 2022, Taiwan News announced the instant messaging app LINE would roll out its DOSI NFT platform. Available in multiple languages in about 180 nations, DOSI allows customers to trade NFTs with crypto or credit cards. Currently, LINE is the most downloaded messaging app in countries like Taiwan and Japan, and it’s partially affiliated with Yahoo’s Japan branch.
Many tech companies in nearby China have also released NFT marketplaces for customers. For instance, the Twitter-like site Weibo now allows customers to mint their texts as NFTs on the platform “TopHolder.” Other big-name companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu have sold thousands of NFTs to Chinese collectors.