Flipkart Jumps Onto Metaverse Bandwagon, To Launch Flipverse This Diwali

Ecommerce giant Flipkart is reportedly planning to announce its interactive and Metaverse-themed virtual shopping platform, Flipverse, during the ongoing ‘Big Billion Days Sale’. 

Sources told The Decrypting Story that Flipkart has partnered with social media giant Meta and Ethereum Layer-2 scaling startup Polygon for the project. They also said that the Metaverse project could be launched as soon as Diwali (around October) this year.

Inc42 has reached out to Flipkart for a confirmation on the development. The story will be updated on receiving a response from the company. 

Flipverse is expected to deploy a host of Web3.0 technologies to elevate current user experience to include a virtual reality experience. The new offering will enable users to walk through the virtual shopping centre and interact with digital store fronts. According to the report, Flipverse will host games, NFTs, product launches, and other contests. 

This comes after weeks of overt and covert teasing of the Metaverse platform by a clutch of media reports and digital bloggers. Earlier this week, Polygon cofounder Sandeep Nailwal also tweeted about ‘Flipverse by Flipkart’ saying that it was powered by Polygon and eDAO.

Flipkart has been experimenting with Web3.0 technologies for some time now. In April this year, the ecommerce major launched Flipkart Labs to mark its foray into the world of Web3.0 technologies. The project plans to leverage Flipkart’s in-house capabilities to create technology-based solutions to redefine ecommerce.

The company also unveiled FireDrops earlier this year to explore NFT-related use cases and to bring Web3.0 to a wider audience. 

Earlier, Flipkart also released an NFT collection called Nothing Community Dots, which was hosted on the Polygon blockchain. In a bid to popularise the use of non-fungible tokens, the ecommerce giant recently also announced that buyers of Nothing Phone (1) in India could also purchase the smartphone brand’s limited edition NFTs via the Flipkart app. 

On Friday, Inc42 reported that Flipkart’s Singaoprean entity infused close to INR 1,600 Cr in its Indian subsidiary ahead of its festive season sale. 

The Metaverse offering is likely part of Flipkart’s bid to attract more users. Its key competitor Amazon also launched Amazon Metaverse recently.

The Metaverse space went into an overdrive after social media giant Facebook rebranded itself as Meta. The surrounding curiosity around the name and Mark Zuckerberg’s pronounced focus on Metaverse drew more attention to the space. Other global brands such as Microsoft, Apple and fashion label Ralph Lauren have also forayed into the world of Metaverse. 

Flipkart will join the growing list of Indian companies which deploy Metaverse to conduct business and woo users. IT giants such as TCS, Tech Mahindra and Infosys have scaled up their focus on the Metaverse space, with many of them reportedly working on a double-digit number of projects currently. 

According to a report, the global Metaverse market was estimated to be worth around $38.85 Bn in 2021.