Salesforce Takes Crypto Plunge With New NFT Cloud (techcrunch.com) 33
An anonymous reader shares a report: Who knows whether it's FOMO or actual customer demand for such a thing, but Salesforce announced today that it's launching a pilot of NFT Cloud, a new platform for buying and selling these crypto assets. It's a turn to the future, according to the company, one it insists comes from customer curiosity. "Salesforce is seeing interest from CMOs and CDOs who are asking for help entering web3, and we are enthusiastic about bringing new innovations, products and offerings to our customers in a way that allows them to build and maintain meaningful relationships with their customers," Adam Caplan, SVP of Emerging Technology at Salesforce told TechCrunch.
The company's goal with this product is to make NFT selling more accessible. "NFT Cloud is all about helping our customers mint, manage and sell NFTs, and of course it's all no code. So it's super easy on our platform, abstracting all the complicated technology in this [new] web3 world," he said. He says he's seeing interest across a variety of verticals including retail, media, fashion and consumer goods, among others. "It's really about driving engagement and communities, and we're seeing super passionate communities in the NFT space..." Caplan explained. He sees it as a way to market to customers with something of potential value to them. "It's really about utility. And what we mean by utility is as an NFT holder, I receive certain benefits. It could be something in a digital world, or it could be something in the physical world," he said.
The company's goal with this product is to make NFT selling more accessible. "NFT Cloud is all about helping our customers mint, manage and sell NFTs, and of course it's all no code. So it's super easy on our platform, abstracting all the complicated technology in this [new] web3 world," he said. He says he's seeing interest across a variety of verticals including retail, media, fashion and consumer goods, among others. "It's really about driving engagement and communities, and we're seeing super passionate communities in the NFT space..." Caplan explained. He sees it as a way to market to customers with something of potential value to them. "It's really about utility. And what we mean by utility is as an NFT holder, I receive certain benefits. It could be something in a digital world, or it could be something in the physical world," he said.
NFT? Again? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)
so you just decided to be a troll?
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Is there something wrong with my brain?
What am I failing to understand about NFTs? Why are they worth anything at all?
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NFTs are worth something because other people might think they are worth something.
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They are worth something like Steam Trading Cards. Not worth much, but someone thinks they have *some* value
Re: NFT? Again? (Score:2)
You mean like stocks and crypto coins. Since stocks no longer pay dividends it's the same
Cue PT Barnum... (Score:5, Interesting)
"He sees it as a way to market to customers with something of potential value to them."
No. Its a way to sell worthless digital junk to credulous idiots with too much money. The customers are the value in the same way cattle are to farmers.
"It's really about utility. And what we mean by utility is as an NFT holder, I receive certain benefits. It could be something in a digital world, or it could be something in the physical world,"
Ah, the NFT version if air miles. Spend $10000 and you could get a "free" t-shirt or a one way trip to Aleppo. In the case of NFTs , probably a similar T-shirt pointing you out as a total mug, or yet more worthless digital junk.
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I was going to say that this is a weird move from Salesforce, but this sentence immediately convinced me that it is right in their wheelhouse.
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hey now, we need more farmers in Aleppo! You know how hard it is to get the famous Aleppo pepper these days?
And I mean the real stuff from Aleppo, not the close-but-no-cigar stuff farmed nearby in Turkey. It's close, but not quite the same. (It's also way easier to get, for obvious reasons).
More people sent to Aleppo to farm peppers would be desirable!
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Thus begins SalesForce slide into irrelevance (Score:4, Insightful)
This is so far from SalesForceâ(TM)s central mission itâ(TM)s not funny. With Dynamics 365 CRM starting to bite into the SalesForce customer base, this seems a wholly inappropriate response. But SalesForce has been doing weird stuff of late!
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Because, why not? (Score:2)
Everyone else is doing it... In 10 years, I doubt most of the players now will be around. Coming late to the party is also bad. If your product doesn't get used its a waste of time and money for your investors. But NFT's are like like a moth in the light and companies can't pass them up.
Re:Because, why not? (Score:5, Interesting)
the thing is if you are larger organization you probably have some spare resources. So you have a couple devs and handful of marketing folks with a ten or fifteen uncommited hours in a week - should they
1) idle their time away on something that does not generate revenue
2) do you have them wank away on adding some misfeature to your core product, which has been feature complete really for a decade. Knowing 80% of your users won't look at it, 10% will hate it and wish it was not there; and 8% will play with it but not really care and 2% will integrate it into some critical process of theirs and demand you support it for eternity!
3) Take a flier on this NFT fad, which while unlikely to really generate any returns, is also low effort and very low risk. The chief risk being nobody pays attention or some software flaw lets people make off with some digital 'assets' that cost your or your real customers nothing to produce in the first place. For 5min you look silly on wsj.com and then its all forgotten.
Seems clear enough to me; that #3 is actually the way to go. Since so much of the world demands to play stupid games, might as well sell them stupid prizes.
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That's probably the best argument for the action I've heard. I don't believe that's really what's behind their decision, but it would be reasonable if it were.
Re:Because, why not? (Score:4, Insightful)
I think it carries a bit of risk, though. One might be concerned about a company that appeared to jump on completely unrelated fads, as it makes them seem flighty or directionless. i.e. "Don't they have better things to do, like improve their core product?"
So, even if it's a fairly small diversion of resources, it can still irritate customers who feel that more important issues aren't being addressed.
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I'm sure that it takes 'more than a few devs', you have to have people it ops to make sure the thing runs, take time from many departments for PR and other internal processes.
Finally an accurate title! (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't want to be a party-pooper, but hasn't the NFT market been plunging hard lately? Due to the fact that it is, um, an obvious scam?
So then, it may well be that Salesforce will indeed take a Crypto Plunge With New NFT Cloud.
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It's all about deanonymization (Score:5, Interesting)
Wrong Implication (Score:3)
That's not at all what's happening. NFT people have money (as in USD) through crypto. They're interested in making NFT trading more accessible, and are willing to pay. So Salesforce is building a product to cater to those people who have money. Is Salesforce betting the farm on NFTs? Is it transferring all of it's assets or bank accounts into crypto? No, it's just building a derivative product for people who have money to buy and sell their NFTs.
In no way does that ascribe the legitimacy of Salesforce to the legitimacy of NFTs; they are still a racket and Salesforce is still making it's money in it's services in more legitimate enterprises. Salesforce will turn a profit on this product most likely before NFTs fade into obscurity, and so it makes sense to make this product.
Turn to the future my hiney (Score:3)
It's a turn to the future
No, it's a scam. Or, it you're more charitable, a get-rich-quick scheme. Or, if you're really charitable, a cheap publicity stunt.
Why NFT? (Score:2)
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Web3 and NFT aren't directly related, Web 3 is about leverage crypto chains and decentralization,
Seems related to me. They both have exactly the same aroma about them.
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Re:Why NFT? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm a "mostly retired" consultant in the developing tech world, almost 50 years old. I consulted on modems in the 80s, packet switching and web sites in the 90s, ecommerce in the 00s, and crypto in the 10s. I always stay very busy.
Right now, I have more customers begging me for NFT consulting (which I don't do), and some of the early responses when I've bird-dogged clients to NFT consultants is actual improvement of logistics and verifying authenticity and even reducing costs significantly.
Title search insurance for home ownership is a huge scam on buyers and sellers and can be totally automated with NFT systems.
Selling higher end designer clothes actually increases the value of the new item when there's a method to verify ownership and authenticity, which NFT does beautifully.
I don't consult with NFT jargon, but I pass on a lot of work to those who do, and they're staying VERY busy, and the companies early results are very exciting. Reputable companies want to move more to Web3 once they understand it.
From what I've seen, a lot of tech geeks on /. still don't understand crypto, so of course they won't understand NFT/Web3.
I remember when I first joined /. -- it was a lot of libertarians and anti-state types. Now you're all bootlickers, so of course you hate anything that exists to work around regulations.
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Re: Why NFT? (Score:2)
You had me going until that hyperbolic end. Maybe if you refrain from that you'll convince more folks.
I'm also nearly 50, fully retired, and it took me a minute to realize you claimed to be "consulting" in the 80s when you were a teenager. I was a precocious kid too but I'm almost 50 so I know better.
SalesForce Takes Advantage of Idiots to Make Money (Score:3)
There. Fixed the title for you.
Re: SalesForce Takes Advantage of Idiots to Make M (Score:3)
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Exactly! :D
Put the NFT hate koolaid aside? (Score:3)
I don't understand why people are so blinded with hatred over NFTs that they can't wrap their head around the potential for legitimate uses of NFTs that are not scams or absurdly priced worthless digital trinkets. maybe some jealousy for not having banked off of it? Or just a jump on the internet groupthink bandwagon?
If NFTs are ever to move beyond this gimmicky phase, players who are interested in realistic applications, I think we need players like Salesforce to be in the game.
Airlines are planning to use them for to let tracking and transfers: https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/ujvqzw/the_future_of_airline_tickets_nfts_are_here_to
Maybe You still think it's a bad idea, But the intent is to use the technology for a genuine benefit.
Darn, I thought a Salesforce crypto initiative had (Score:2)