Starbucks to Launch Branded NFT Collections This Year
One grande iced coffee and a non-fungible token (NFT), please: Starbucks is entering the Web3 space with a plan to launch its own range of NFTs.
The global coffee chain wants to expand its brand into the digital third place by building a Digital Community Web3 platform. That starts with a series of branded NFT collections, ownership of which comes with "exclusive experiences and perks."
The plan was outlined by Starbucks Chief Marketing Officer Brady Brewer during a fiscal Q2 2022 earnings call, as reported by TechCrunch. "To achieve this, we will broaden our framework of what it means for people to be a member of the Starbucks community, adding new concepts such as ownership and community-based membership models that we see developing in the Web3 space."
A decentralized online ecosystem based on blockchain, Web3 often incorporates blockchain technologies like non-fungible tokens. "We are fascinated by how NFTs allow people to own a programmable, brandable digital asset that also doubles as an access pass," Brewer wrote in a blog announcement.
While it hasn't yet settled on a blockchain technology, Starbucks did promise to build its NFT collections on an environmentally sustainable Web3 infrastructure. The company will take a phased approach, starting with "coffee art" and storytelling-based units.
"This first collection will form the core digital community and backbone against which we hope to build future collections and collaborations—all building on the same new ecosystem," Starbucks said.
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