It is, say followers, the future of the Internet and e-commerce, perhaps what will one day replace social networks. Very trendy at the moment, the metaverse, a sort of virtual universe resembling a digital video game in which you can interact with other people and where the biggest brands, such as Facebook, Nike or Carrefour, are investing, will see the city of Cannes.
A European premiere boasts the municipality of the festival. At the end of June, it will indeed auction 3D digital representations of ten emblematic sites (an 11th will be offered), such as the Palais des Festivals and its red carpet, the Croisette or Sainte-Marguerite Island, with the royal fort. Concretely, the acquirers will be able to use these places known all over the world, in the form of NFT (tamper-proof certificates of ownership) to integrate them into the virtual sets of the metaverse platform of their choice.
The city will receive royalties
With this astonishing operation, the Côte d’Azur hopes to “enhance its heritage beyond all borders and position itself on a rapidly expanding innovative market, a source of attractiveness, influence and wealth”, enthuses the mayor, David Lisnard. The auction, led by a major auction house during the next Cannes Lions advertising festival, could reach “several tens of thousands of euros to several tens of millions of euros”, hopes Charles-Henri Puaux, the boss of Pertimm , the specialized company in charge of the project.
“It’s a way of having a unique digital asset that exists in the real world,” he adds. This may be of interest to people who have made a fortune in cryptocurrency, investment funds, or wealthy people seeking fame. Anything seems possible indeed: a house with a view of Mars recently sold for half a million dollars in the metaverse. A (virtual) yacht, meanwhile, flew to … 650,000 dollars. Very lucrative initiative or not, fanciful or ahead of its time, the city of festivals will receive royalties and part of the sums will be donated to the Cannes Endowment Fund for environmental projects.