Metaverse initiatives spread in France under government push

In France, initiatives to develop immersive, shared virtual environments are growing on the back of increased interest from both government and business in the prospect of the metaverse to reinvent customer engagement, enrich experiences and showcase French culture.

In the Cote d’Azur metropolitan area and the capital city of Nice, mayor and president Christian Estrosi made a groundbreaking move this year when he unveiled that a virtual replica of the Villa Massena, a historic building in Nice, had been released on the metaverse platform Spatial.

The move made Nice Cote d’Azur the first metropolis in France to establish a presence on the metaverse, the city said in a statement, showcasing its “keen attention to developments related to Web 3.0”, including virtual, shared spaces as well as non – -fungible tokens (NFT).

The initiative was shown live during an official ceremony on February 14, where an avatar of Estrosi presented the city’s goals behind the new virtual space, boasting of the metropolis’ rich cultural heritage and desire to stay up-to-date with the latest in technology. the development.

Christian Estrosi

#Pleasant06, premiere métropole de France à investir le Metaverse ! Dans le cadre de la candidature de la @VilledeNice one @Nice2028eulaugh @musee_massena a ouvert ses portes virtualles sur @Spatial_ioen faisant une nouvelle porte d’entrée sur le rayonnement culturel de notre Cité. pic.twitter.com/Lsn3bulcNf

— Christian Estrosi (@cestrosi) 14 February 2023

The Nice Cote d’Azur metropolis is one of the many players in France that have recently jumped on the metaverse bandwagon. Just this month, multinational insurance company AXA said its French subsidiary had launched a new game on The Sandbox metaverse platform.

The AXADIA initiative, which is available until March 1, aims for visitors to learn about AXA, its values ​​and achievements through a virtual game.

It allows players to access exclusive experiences and rooms, including a recruitment room with games that focus on courage and resilience, an innovation room that focuses on collaborative work, and a museum that covers the history of AXA.

The game culminates with a “Secret” level that gives players the opportunity to win the AXA Shield NFT, a “legendary shield” that refers to the insurance companies’ goal: to provide customers with financial protection against losses.

Additionally, AXA said the new metaverse initiative stands out from other games for its unique “play-to-give” experience, which entices players to participate with the promise of donating 20,000 SAND (US$14,000) to Emmaus Connect, an organization fighting against digital and social exclusion, reaches the total number of players completing the game reaching 10,000.

AXA, which was first involved in the metaverse in early 2022 through the acquisition of a plot of land in The Sandbox, is part of a growing list of French companies looking at opportunities in the shared virtual space. These companies include:

• Carrefour, a multinational retail and wholesale company that bought land in The Sandbox in 2022 and has been exploring virtual recruiting opportunities in the metaverse;
• Casino, a mass market group that started buying plots on The Sandbox in 2021 and last year launched a new game on the metaverse platform;
• Ubisoft, a leading video game publisher that brought the Rabbids multimedia franchise to The Sandbox in 2022; and
• The Havas Group, a communications group that opened a “virtual village” in The Sandbox in April 2022.

French luxury brands are also actively pursuing metaverse and NFT opportunities. A 2022 analysis by Bain and Company for Comite Colbert, a local luxury industry group, revealed that about half of the country’s luxury sector houses and companies were either experimenting with metaverse or NFTs, or planned to soon.

Adopted by only 5% of pioneers to date, NFTs can be massively deployed in the coming years: 51% of companies surveyed said that NFTs were either already in the testing phase or plan to launch before 2025. This is the highest the forecast level among all the technologies studied and combined.

Respondents named customer engagement as the main focus for technology adoption, seeing opportunities related to NFTs and the metaverse to customize and enrich remote selling experiences, omni-channel and immersion.

Terminates the opportunity

These initiatives are emerging against the backdrop of growing interest in these concepts from the government. A report commissioned by the French authorities and released in October 2022 highlights the necessity to stop the possibilities that brought the metaverse, and emphasizes the need to formulate a clear national strategy.

Among the recommendations put forward, the report says that the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris provide a great opportunity to bring together industry stakeholders to work on and launch concrete metaverse projects. These initiatives should focus on showcasing France’s territories, culture and heritage, it said.

Lawmakers should also begin work on adjusting the regulatory framework to accommodate the evolution of the metaverse, as well as support should be given to metaverse projects that address societal needs, it said.

“The authors of the report are formal: the metaverse announces itself as a carrier of great opportunities, from industry to health, through training and finance,” a media statement from the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty of France, reads.

“For France and for Europe, the development of the metaverse must allow the emergence of new world leaders in the digital realm and strengthen French cultural influence. Thus, according to the report, encouraging this innovation in the territory will promote the export of Francophone culture, in the Francophonie and beyond.”

Across the border, in Switzerland, Helvetia Insurance last week launched a new offering in the metaverse, allowing customers with virtual reality (VR) headsets to attend consultations in a virtual meeting room through their avatar.

Information events and consultations in the metaverse are the first metaverse pilot applications for the company, Jan Kundert, head of customer and market management, and member of the executive board of Helvetia Switzerland, said in a release. New products are envisioned at a later stage due to increased demand for new insurance solutions in the virtual world, he said.

Featured image credit: edited from Freepik here and here