Blind Survey Asks "Are You Buying Land in the Metaverse?" Here's How 1400 Staffers at Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft & Others Answered

The team at Blind, the anonymous social messaging app for tech employees, just passed along the results of a user-driven survey, asking the somewhat ambiguous question, "Are you buying land in the metaverse?"

Since it was posted December 17, 1400+ users have responded, with the most responses coming from employees with Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft/LinkedIn -- answers above. Only 13% have answered that question Yes, with 87% choosing No or How?

So this survey suggests that tech employees are overwhelmingly disinterested or confused by the concept of the Metaverse -- but also, that a substantial minority (over 1 in 10) are already personally investing in it. Personally I think the latter takeaway is more notable.

Here's some user comments from users at various tech companies, including some from firms directly involved in Metaverse development at some level (Unity, Amazon, Google, and Intel) :

• Pearson employee: "What a dumb investment. The whole reason that land/real estate is a good investment is because there is a finite amount. What’s the point of virtual land?"
• Unity employee: "There are limited resources, and there will be limited 'winning' jurisdictions in the Metaverse that people will coalesce around. Buying that virtual property from now is a bet on that jurisdiction being one of the key, most-used ones. They ARE limited, and NFTs ensure that they are unique."
• Google employee: "This is counterintuitive to the metaverse. You can create anything at any time. Physical locations no longer carry any meaning."
• Intel employee: "This reminds me of buying land in Second life. RIP"
• Speedway employee: "No. NFTs and metaverse are two brethren dumb ideas and fads which made plenty of people rich quick but leave even more bagholders. The easy money has already been made."
• Amazon employee: "I mean that’s always been there ever played RuneScape or New World or other similar games? You buy actual houses there from game coins which you would at some point need to buy with real money.."
• Wayfair employee: "the ones currently don’t have much utility, but a lot are being built, be patient and have a watchful eye"

Were this question asked the same time next year, I suspect the response would be completely different. Thanks again to Team Blind for the data!

Comments

[camilia fid3lis nee Patchouli Woollahra]

The Idolmaker is an atheist, for he knows what the gods are made of.

[Luther Weymann]

Three years ago, while roaming around the island I formally lived on in the Blake Sea, I created a SLURL spreadsheet. This was for parcels for sale with prices exceeding L$100,000 and was waterfront on the Blake Sea. A few parcels in the 2048 to 8192 size were for sale between L$250,000 and L$2,500,000. I sort of forgot about the spreadsheet or at least did not look at it for about a year, and then one day opened it up and started clicking on the twenty or so SLURLs to see what had happened. Almost all of the "cheap" L$100,000 parcels had been sold. The 4096 for sale at L$500,000 was sold, and an extravagant new home with professional landscaping was there with the yacht parked out front. Someone has money to spend. I don't know if sellers came down on prices which I doubt they did. But for sure, there are people out there buying what I consider costly properties in SL.

[Emm.]

Hi James !
A question from a dilletant second life user (but in the game since 2008) : why do linden labs do not tokenize its linden dollars ? Why dont they blockchainize themselves ? Why stay closed to what happens today ? Merci !