Roblox stocks dropping: Is Wall Street’s honeymoon in the metaverse over?
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While Fortune100 companies around the world hire self-proclaimed Web3 consultants to figure out their “metaverse strategy” Roblox’s stock is experiencing some serious lows. The often labeled “Covid stock” is seeing “back to normal” in a different light, as kids go back to classrooms and soccer (football!) practice. Meanwhile, venture capital keeps rushing into blockchain games ($1B in funding in the last month alone), and pretty much any startup pitch deck mentioning “Web3 disruption” on its cover slide.
When Adidas buys virtual lands in The Sandbox and teams up with the likes of Bored Apes, and when Nike acquires RTKFT and co-drops the first NFT, launching a mini-world in Roblox like Ralph Lauren or Vans did recently, can feel so 2021. But make no mistake. Roblox remains, by a mile, the closest thing to a “metaverse” where people actually spend time and do things at scale. In the chaos of virtual real-estate booms and NFT ponzi schemes, can Roblox’s strategy of not chasing the latest buzzwords and cash-grab opportunities help them win in the long run?
When referring to video games as the tipping edge of the metaverse, we mostly think of a place where people hang out for more than just playing, joining events, and showing off their outfits. Roblox already takes things further with an early version of a structured and sustainable virtual economy. One with goods and services, tools to create them, a currency and marketplace to sell and re-sell them (last year a virtual Gucci handbag sold for +$4000, more than the actual bag), all resulting in the creation of actual jobs.
It’s also a community that grew 40%
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