'Cyber Bag' Purchase Worth Millions... "Why Buy That?" vs "For Fun" MZ Generation's Playground 'Metaverse'

'Gucci Bag' That Can't Be Touched Sold for 4.65 Million Won
2030 Generation Plays in Cyber Space 'Metaverse'
Spending Millions on Decorating Their Characters... Identifying with Reality
Experts Say "Metaverse Will Bring Revolutionary Changes to Socioeconomic Systems"

Gucci's Dionysus bag exists only in the virtual world and cannot be worn or even touched in the real world. Photo by Roblox

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Seung-gon] "Why on earth do people buy bags that can only be used in the virtual world?" "Because it's fun and nice!"

Playing and meeting someone to continue conversations in a digital space rather than reality is not a new scene. Dressing up one's character and spending money to decorate it in the cyber world is also not a first-time occurrence.

However, spending hundreds of thousands of won on luxury brand bags that cannot be touched and carefully creating avatars is a rare sight. Such things are happening in the `Metaverse`.

The Metaverse is a compound word of `Meta`, meaning `beyond` or `abstract`, and `Universe`, meaning the real world. It refers to a kind of three-dimensional virtual space where the boundary between reality and virtuality is blurred. It is a concept of a virtual world with higher participation compared to the cyber spaces popular in the early 2000s.

The main players playing in the Metaverse are the digitally savvy MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z, born 1981?2010). They are accustomed to meeting friends through their avatars.

Kim, a worker in his 20s, said, "People born in the 90s are familiar with Twitter and SNS," adding, "So they easily accept avatar friends as the real person."

Also, Lee, a job seeker in his mid-20s, said, "In reality, stress from relationships is quite high, so I think people meet and make friends with character friends in a somewhat `hip` space."

Game screen presented through collaboration between Gucci and the global mobile game 'Tennis Clash'. Photo by Gucci

As the Metaverse attracts attention as a playground for the MZ generation, a bag that cannot be used in real life was sold for hundreds of thousands of won.

According to foreign media including Bloomberg on the 17th, luxury brand Gucci sold a Dionysus digital-only bag on the Metaverse platform 'Roblox' at the end of last month for $4,115 (about 4.65 million won). Bloomberg reported that this price is 350,000 Robux, the currency used in Roblox, which is more expensive than the physical bag.

Meanwhile, Gucci also put up a 4-minute 5-second NFT (non-fungible token, a type of digital asset) video for auction at Christie's at the end of last month, and the work was sold for $25,000 on the 4th.

Also, Chinese sneaker brand RTFKT sold 600 pairs of NFT sneakers for $3.1 million in February this year. It took 7 minutes to sell out, even though these were digital products that cannot be actually worn.

Because of this, people in their 40s who are not part of the MZ generation have expressed bewilderment. Park, a worker in his 40s, said, "In the past, there were cases of buying and selling items in games, so I don't think this is a new phenomenon," but added, "I honestly don't know what meaning it has; isn't it just buying to brag in cyberspace?" He added, "If the popularity fades, prices in the market will probably drop."

Another worker in his late 30s, Lee, said, "They say the Metaverse is a trend among the MZ generation, but trends come and go," adding, "If the trend fades, related industries could also stagnate." He cautiously added, "However, generations after the MZ generation will inevitably be more familiar with digital, so for this reason, the Metaverse might settle into everyday life."

Meanwhile, experts have predicted that such a Metaverse environment can play a positive role in the industry. The Software Policy & Research Institute (SPRi) published a report titled `Login Metaverse: Revolution of Human × Space × Time`, which forecasted from an economic perspective that "the Metaverse will bring about innovative changes across the socio-economic spectrum."

It also analyzed, "The Metaverse is rapidly spreading by combining with service platforms such as games and SNS, and the utilization areas of Metaverse creation and implementation platforms are expanding beyond games to all industries, with evolved platforms continuously emerging," adding, "The developer ecosystem using Metaverse creation platforms is continuously expanding, and new platforms supporting Metaverse implementation are continuously emerging, so the speed of evolution is expected to accelerate."