Today, MTN Group became the first African country to enter the metaverse after it acquired land in Africarare’s metaverse called Ubuntuland. The telecommunications cum technology giant purchased 144 plots of virtual land with an overall area of 12x12m.
Africarare alongside Mann Made Media is developing this metaverse called Ubuntuland which will be open to the public for land sales before the end of the year. According to a blog post by MTN Group, Africarare which made its debut in South Africa in October 2021, is the first African Virtual Reality metaverse featuring digital land.
In the blogpost, the company’s Executive for Marketing – Bernice Samuels, said that “This is an exciting moment for us as we lead businesses on the continent to enter the metaverse marketplace. This is exactly what our Ambition 2025 strategy is premised on – leveraging trends that amplify consumers’ digital experiences and engagement. We have always been at the forefront of technological and digital changes and we remain alive to the exciting opportunities the metaverse presents for us and our customers”.
“This investment demonstrates MTN’s commitment to supporting African innovation as it is the first company on the continent to support an initiative of this kind. Through its presence in the metaverse, MTN intends to increase its customer attractiveness through a series of experiences merged with consumer passion points, like gaming and music”, the blog post read.
The purchase of the virtual land comes after MTN Group’s rebranding from a telecommunications company to a technological company. The company changed its logo. The new logo has the “MTN” letters written boldly in black with a black oval shape on a yellow background. The new logo represents the company’s growth and evolution into what it aspires to be. The company’s tagline “Everywhere You Go” will be replaced by “Yello”.
MTN does not want to be known only as a telecommunications company but a technology company as it plans to diversify its operations in the future. It wants to branch into offering digital solutions that’ll bring Africa to the forefront of the technological space.
