Weekly Learnings From China

China introduces state-backed NFT platform unlinked to cryptocurrencies

China’s state-backed Blockchain Services Network (BSN) has announced the soft launch of a nationwide infrastructure to support Chinese non-fungible tokens (NFTs), marking a significant step toward the development of a domestic industry separate from the global market and unrelated to cryptocurrencies.

The BSN-Distributed Digital Certificates (BSN-DDC) infrastructure, according to BSN, would provide enterprises with “a varied, transparent, credible, and reliable” one-stop-shop for minting and managing their own NFTs without relying on cryptocurrencies, which are prohibited in China. The Ethereum blockchain is used by the majority of NFTs throughout the world.

BSN is backed by China Mobile, a state-owned telecommunications company, China UnionPay, and the State Information Centre, which is a government think tank. The blockchain unit of accounting company Ernst & Young, Digital Art Fair Asia, and the Hainan International Culture and Artworks Exchange Centre are among the 26 founding partners.

Because public blockchains are decentralised platforms, they are prohibited in China, where the government mandates that all internet services verify user identities and allow regulators to intervene if unlawful actions occur. To address this issue, BSN turned to an altered version of blockchain known as the open permissioned blockchain (OPB), which can be regulated by a selected group.

Minting fees, which can only be paid in fiat money, can be as low as 0.05 yuan (0.7 US cents) – a fraction of what they are on public networks. While NFTs are currently mostly utilised for certifying digital artworks, the largest market for accreditations such as car number plates would be management. The automobile owner, government, and insurer would all have controlled access to data including mileage, engine number, and repair history, with each party being aware of the rights of the others.

Link: https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3164681/china-introduces-state-backed-nft-platform-unlinked 

Can overseas luxury brands incorporate guochao? 

Many luxury brands have collaborated with contemporary Japanese artists throughout the years, including Yayoi Kusama for Louis Vuitton and Veuve Clicquot, Takashi Murakami for Louis Vuitton, and Hublot for Hublot (all belonging to LVMH). Because Japan was the world’s largest individual consumer market for luxury goods until 2016, luxury houses concentrated their efforts there.

Luxury labels have created capsule collections for Chinese holidays such as the Lunar New Year, QiXi – Chinese Valentine’s Day, 520, and 11.11 Singles Day in recent years, as the tide has turned and the spotlight has shifted away from Japan and towards China.

Guochao 国潮 literally means national tide. This trend has been fueled mostly by the younger generation’s pride in domestic companies, designers, and artists. As a result, it’s remarkable that, in the two years since the trend began, European luxury and fashion businesses have been sluggish to adopt similar techniques to those employed in Japan.

Link: https://daoinsights.com/opinions/will-european-luxury-brands-incorporate-guochao-the-same-way-they-did-with-japanese-pop-culture/

ByteDance Debuts in the Metaverse With New Social App

TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, is testing its first metaverse social app called Party Island. The social network app creates a parallel online universe, where people can meet up, chat and join events in real-time, but through avatars instead of in the real world.

Party Island supports the same login method as Douyin (China’s TikTok) through a mobile phone number. Since it is currently in the testing stage, an invitation code is required to enter the platform.

Link: https://jingdaily.com/bytedance-metaverse-social-app/

The sports marketing market will become the leading force in 2022

The brand’s most crucial marketing direction is global sports competitiveness. It is the enterprise’s main appeal, especially in the aftermath of the epidemic, to promote the brand concept through events and communicate successfully with followers.

Brands must plan ahead and implement more targeted strategic deployments based on current marketing and consumption trends.

Tiktok has naturally created a global community and captured the attention of followers by offering engaging and educational material.

More brands are projected to enter the sponsorship market, energise communities associated to specific partnerships, or use the influence of sports or celebrities to raise public awareness, build trust, and fulfil commitments in order to create conditions for their products, services, and values.

Driven by sports competitions and social media, athlete marketing is further rising. These star athletes are younger than ever, and they reflect the core values of their respective fan groups.

Link: https://www.digitaling.com/articles/696723.html

Xiaohongshu-Snowflakes NFT is coming

Xiaohongshu asked world champions, sportsmen, and artists to produce 96 various design digital NFT of snowflakes during the ice and snow activities of this winter Olympic Games. Each work is limited to 1000 copies and is digitally certified with a unique hash value for each copy.

From February 4 to 20, look for “snowflake” in the small red book and go to the activity page. After that, complete a task to obtain one snowflake fragment, and five fragments can get an NFT snowflake at random.

Each snowflake is unique in its ingenuity. Each designer incorporates their individual professional traits into the snowflakes.

According to Wu Minxia, a diving champion, the six-petaled snowflakes and the surrounding splashes combine to create this remarkable snowflake.

Artists, illustrators, craftspeople, and other works ought to be recognised as well.

Jijiukiyoe, a Beijing-based artist, excels at Japanese ukiyo illustration and incorporates classic Japanese ukiyo themes with contemporary popular culture. He used the classic pattern “tiger, dragon, and Eagle,” presenting the snowflake pattern with oriental charm and blended the ancient blue and white porcelain pattern with the modern traditional tattoo style.

In addition to collecting snowflake digital NFT collections, the little red book has many surprises around the ice and snow event. Since January this year, many ice and snow athletes have settled in xiaohongshu. On the special page of xiaohongshu events, users can see the real-time medal and schedule information, live broadcast and obtain event information such as gold medal-winning and record-breaking. Many users also released notes to discuss the brand of clothing of each team at the opening ceremony. 

Link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/hQaKlQJvBvWc6YmAcsxidQ

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