NFTs
SBINFT’s Jangdeok Ko on the Future of NFTs and Japan
SBINFT is the creator of Japan’s largest NFT marketplace, providing tools for creators and businesses to issue, sell, and manage secondary distribution of blockchain-based digital assets. We recently spoke with Jangdeok Ko, CEO of SBINFT, about the NFT landscape, the future of NFTs, Japan’s role in the market, and more.
P: What is your vision for the future of the NFT market?
A: In Japan, Web3 is attracting attention as a new frontier in the digital economy and is positioned as a national strategy. In particular, NFTs are compatible not only with finance and art, but also with IP such as anime and games, and large companies as well as venture capitalists are entering the market one after another.
However, although there are high expectations for the growth of the sector, there is still no clear method of use in the business area, and the market is still in the trial and error phase for those who have entered the market.
Therefore, our goal is to create an environment where anyone can trade NFTs with confidence by providing a trustworthy platform and making NFTs a mainstream practice in society. Our vision is to realize the statement: “Be the FIRST, be the STANDARD.”
Q: How will SBINFT Market empower creators to monetize their work?
A: First, creators’ NFTs managed by “SBINFT Market” are divided into game NFTs, art NFTs, and other NFTs.
Last year, SBINFT Market announced that it would be rebranding itself as a marketplace optimized for gaming users. However, we will continue to handle art-related NFTs and other NFTs. To make it easier for users to find the NFTs they want, we have added search options such as genre, price, and credit card payment availability to the filters.
Additionally, building a fan community is important for creators to monetize their work, but managing that community often requires mastery of multiple tools and is a major hurdle to overcome.
In addition to “SBINFT Market”, SBINFT provides the “SBINFT Mits” marketing team platform, which is equipped with 11 useful functions for managing NFT projects, providing support for the management of creators’ fan communities.
P: How do you see the competitive landscape of the NFT market?
A: We believe that the boom in blockchain gaming and PFP, which was only temporary in its excitement, has subsided and that we are finally at a stage where practical use cases are being pursued by the general public.
We are seeing examples of NFTs being used by existing companies for new loyalty programs, ticket subscriptions, etc., and major game makers entering the blockchain gaming space.
Competition has already begun to emerge in these areas, but the number of participants is not yet large, and it is difficult to predict what kind of competition will emerge when large companies enter the market in the future.
In terms of market operators, even some world-renowned companies are changing their classifications.
In addition to increasing transaction volume, the key to winning the competition will be how to create a business model that does not depend solely on the transaction volume of the marketplace, as we do with our “SBINFT Market” and also with “SBINFT Mits”.
P: How will SBINFT Market stay ahead of the competition?
A: SBINFT’s strength lies in its excellent visibility in the Japanese Web3 market and the reliability of the SBI Group brand.
In this role, SBINFT will work with game developers to expand the market and build an ecosystem for blockchain games, with the goal of becoming a portal service for blockchain games with a large user base in the future.
In the future, we aim to create a portal service for blockchain games with a large user base. Within the ecosystem, we will contribute to maximizing the liquidity of game NFTs using the SBINFT Marketplace.
In addition, we have more partners than our competitors, and our payment methods are also very rich, such as credit card payments between users.
By offering many simple and easy-to-use functions not only for users familiar with Web3 but also for users in the existing market, we will take the lead in the market and build a dominant position by aggressively working towards many partnerships.
Q: With the rise of play-to-earn games, what role do you see NFTs playing in the future of the gaming industry and how is SBINFT positioned to capitalize on this trend?
A: With the creation of play-to-earn games and NFTs, in-game items have become assets and liquid. With the creation of assets and liquidity, we can expect an influx of not only pure gaming users, but also light gaming users who aim to recoup their original investment while having fun, as well as users whose goal is to earn money. We believe this has triggered the diversification of gaming, with new games such as STEPN (Move to Earn) and SNPIT (Snap to Earn) being created.
As SBINFT is optimizing the “SBINFT Market” for game user transactions, SBINFT Market will capture the transaction demand that arises in the process of users enjoying the game and recovering their original funds.
Q: Japan has taken a proactive stance in promoting Web3. In your opinion, what are the key factors that will determine Japan’s success in becoming a global leader in the Web3 space? How can SBINFT contribute to this goal?
A: The current trend of public and private sectors working together on We3 is set to continue. In government, we would like to see continued support and legislation for new technologies, as in the past, and in the private sector, we believe it is important to build use cases in real business scenarios as we work across industries and borders.
In addition, SBINFT aims to support and contribute to Web2 companies entering the Web3 market through the NFT marketplace “SBINFT Market” and the marketing platform “SBINFT Mits”.
As a specific example, the “SBINFT Market” will begin to manage the BONSAI NFT Club, where real bonsai trees can be obtained by increasing the number of NFT holdings and circulating prices, and through the technology cultivated in the process of operating the market, it will begin to issue NFTs with preferential treatment for Securitize Japan Inc., Rim’s Capital Co. Ltd., and RIM’s Capital Corporation.
In addition, Futabasha, a company with national IP content, carried out a campaign linked to X (formerly Twitter) and, by distributing NFTs to the winners, SBINFT Mits achieved anonymous delivery through SBINFT Mits.
P: How do you see the SBINFT market evolving in the future?
A: In order to rebrand “SBINFT Market” as a marketplace optimized for game user transactions, we plan to implement features that will improve the user experience (*5).
In addition, the SBINFT Marketplace will actively attract NFTs for new game titles both domestically and internationally, and actively capture transactions in the game market, where the number of users and NFT transaction volume are expected to increase.
At the same time, by introducing Ponta points, a common points service that currently has over 100 million members, as a service for domestic users, we will create opportunities for users who have no experience with Web3 or NFTs to find NFTs and experience Web3 services. We plan to create a marketplace with a high level of user satisfaction.
Q: Looking ahead, what are your long-term goals for SBINFT and how do you see the platform evolving within the ever-changing NFT landscape?
A: Our goal is to widely disseminate the various use cases of NFT both nationally and internationally.
To this end, we provide all the necessary functions and platforms for companies and project teams to use and liquidate NFTs.
Furthermore, we believe that it is necessary to create an ecosystem that allows deregulation in each country, proactive use by companies and feedback to users.