Sony’s Web3 ambitions

Author: AB Kuai.Dong, Source: Author’s Twitter @_FORAB

Sony’s Crypto actions have been very frequent recently, from exchanges to public chains and popular applications. In fact, it was as early as 23 years ago Started to promote, the number of employees has reached hundreds. According to the original words of insiders: "We have achieved the first place in the Web2 industry, so the same can be done with Web3."

Therefore, this article will briefly review Sony's Web3 territory.

Sony's Web3 promoter , is Japan’s senior OG Jun Watanabe. He joined Sony in 2011 and serves as the representative director of Sony Networks.

In 2023, after the Japanese government established the Web3 national strategy, he was promoted to the group as the head of the group's infrastructure exploration business. Later, the weight of this business was promoted to the group department, under the supervision of the group's senior VP It is managed by Yu Gong Junyuan, who is also the chief strategy officer. He was previously the No. 1 position of Sony China.

In the same year, Sony began Amber Japan was acquired and officially announced as S.BLOX, an exchange owned by Sony, in the summer of 2024. Currently, this business line employs nearly 150 people, and it also plans to launch a wallet service recently.

It is one of the important troika of Sony's Web3 territory (public chain, exchange, wallet).

At the same time, Web3 The research and development company Startale Labs has also made its official public appearance. Its main shareholders include Sony and Samsung Group, and its capital also includes UVM, which is supported by Singapore's United Overseas Bank.

In addition to providing technology development to Sony Chain Soneium, the company also provides Web2 to Web3 services to many traditional Japanese giants.

However, there is The layout of Web3 is still not enough, and it must be combined with real industries. Therefore, companies such as CORGEAR have emerged, successfully bringing Web3 technology or solutions into reality.

Current cases include: Hiroshima Prefecture coffee AR tour, Hokkaido AR travel magazine, and space-time map exploration in cooperation with Taisho University.

And this is the most Importantly, Soneium, which is currently the focus of the market, has, as mentioned before, wallets, gas, and tokens become stumbling blocks for large-scale outside users to enter the Crypto industry.

For this reason, Soneium plans to build a Gas-free Ethereum Layer 2 and only allow specific developers to deploy their own contracts and applications to avoid project rugs and spam problems.

Currently Sony chain Soneium , has taken the lead in launching the first out-of-circle application. It is Yay, which has more than 3 million users in Japan and 97,000 Apple store reviews!

Not long ago, Yay completed a $22 million financing from Japan’s leading securities firm SBI and the American venture capital fund Headline, which is considered the ceiling of Japan-US cooperation.