HSBC Buys Virtual Plot of Land in Digital Push (reuters.com) 28
HSBC is buying a plot of virtual real estate in an online gaming space called The Sandbox for an undisclosed sum, the bank's first major foray into the metaverse as it shrinks its UK branch network. From a report:The digital push will enable HSBC to engage with sports, e-sports and gaming fans via its slice of turf in The Sandbox, a virtual space majority-owned by Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands. Its venture into the virtual world comes as the British-based lender slashes its footprint in the real world, announcing on Tuesday it would cut a further 69 branches in Britain as its customers move online.
Sold off Online Customers (Score:2)
This comes just as HSBC sold off all their online customers to Citizens Bank. Doesn't sound like they really know how to handle " its customers moving online"
Re: (Score:3)
That's because Bitcoin already has online money laundering sorted.
everything old is new again (Score:4, Insightful)
Heh. Remember when companies were doing that in Second Life? This smattering of random corporations bought up tracts of (un)real estate and had their summer interns model, like, Virtual Arby's. And then that went absolutely nowhere, because there was no valid reason to have a presence in Random Proprietary Metaverse if you already had a website.
And just like Virtual Arby's can't give you actual food, Virtual HSBC won't be able to do any actual banking, because the medium won't fit their security requirements. It'll be a big virtual building inviting you to go somewhere else if you want to interact with them. THE FUTURE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
Re: (Score:2)
because there was no valid reason to have a presence in Random Proprietary Metaverse if you already had a website.
Let's hope the only way the "metaverse" idea catches on is if it models itself after the "web." Independent domains with their own content. There might be aggregator metaverse platforms, akin to Geocities but for virtual space, but it will never catch on if there's a parent owner.
The problem with this round of Web X.0 is that it's even less well defined than 2.0 - and everyone is trying to make their own (pay)walled garden.
Arby's is technically food (Score:2)
Arby's is technically food the bar is so low that Virtual Arby's may be better.
Re: (Score:1)
It'll be a big virtual building inviting you to go somewhere else if you want to interact with them.
Another name for that is an advertisement. That's basically what companies are buying when they're hoovering up virtual real estate. To them, it's a digital billboard so they can make sure no matter where you are online, you can't escape the ads.
That's the future.
Is it just a coincidence (Score:4, Interesting)
that this is also a bank known for persistent money laundering violations?
Re: (Score:2)
that this is also a bank known for getting caught with persistent money laundering violations?
There FTFY. And yes, I can guess that lack of understanding of technology and mathematics would explain both why they spend lots of money on a few integers ("buys a virtual plot of land") and also why they get caught doing money laundering.
Re: (Score:2)
Excellent (Score:2)
I have missed the experience of standing in line to talk to a teller in an actual bank. This web and app banking just doesn't have the grittiness of real life.
I hope they can implement handwritten deposit and withdrawal slips too. And you can only get your balance after waiting for a dot matrix printer to print out all your transactions in a little book.
I'll name a star after you for $50 (Score:2)
The nerds are now swindling the jocks (Score:2)
Because crypto and NFTs weren't scammy enough (Score:2)
Now we can have a run on virtual real estate! I swear, I saw it in that movie and like read it in that scifi book, ya know!
Step 1: Virtual real estate.
Step 2:
Step 3: Profit.
Re: (Score:2)
Now we can have a run on virtual real estate! I swear, I saw it in that movie and like read it in that scifi book, ya know!
Step 1: Virtual real estate.
Step 2:
Step 3: Profit.
Step 2 - sell to a complete sucker, preferably someone involved in banking. Bit unrealistic sounding though.
OH YEAH!! (Score:2)
A bank branch in the METAVERSE?
I am so done with using iPhone Apps for online banking!
Lemme grab my VR headset, log into Oculus, browse to the DreamScape world, and do some banking!
sounds super safe too!
Note to self (Score:2)
Million Dollar Homepage flashbacks (Score:1)
hope they don't turn the server off (Score:2)
LOL (Score:2)
HSBC is KNOWN for having pretending to have 'virtual' stuff that disappears once a judge takes a look.
Their scandals take several Wikipedia-pages alone, I'm sure.
virtual money (Score:2)
Where else are you going to store your virtual money but in a virtual bank, right? I wonder what HSBC do with the virtual profits. I know they won't pay virtual interest.
Upload IRL? (Score:1)
Web Malls Anyone? (Score:2)
20 years ago, idiodic retailers were buying "stores" in "web malls". A web mall was nothing more than someone's website for your brochure-ware, designed to poorly mimic a mall. Thankfully, they did NOT play mall-music on the site.
Of course they are (Score:2)
HSBC, who a few years back, took over "maintenance" on a credit card I'd had for 30 years, and then dropped me. When I wrote a letter in response to their letter (we're talking snail-mail, here), the post office bounced it, saying "no such address".
And the next summer, they racked up huge fines for money laundering.
I don't see this as anything else but expanding their money laundering business.