In This year during spring, Softbank’s internet firm Z Holdings which a Tokyo-based holding firm, is planning to boost the adoption of the non-fungible token (NFTs) by introducing a new NFT marketplace called “NFT Mall,” that will be available in 180 countries. Z Holdings is the internet subsidiary of Japanese investment company Softbank.

The owner company Z Holdings plans to expand its fintech unit Paypay service to 90m users. To enhance the growth of the company it is also seeking to work with Web3, metaverse, and NFT sponsors. The company has a five-year growth initiatives budget of around 500bn yen or $5.9 billion to spend on new initiatives. After retail company Rakuten launched its own NFT marketplace last year, following which Softbank entered into the world of NFTs. Enormous growth opportunities in the NFT and Web3 industry led the company to enter into this arena.

According to Kentaro Kawabe, co-chief executive officer CEO, the company is planning to call their NFTmarketplace the ‘NFT mall.’ He said, “It’s possible Web3 will herald a world where life is completely different and we don’t want the company to miss out on the huge growth opportunity,”. He further revealed that Z Holdings is open to mergers and acquisitions to improve its presence as he said, “We won’t hesitate to do merger and acquisition deals to boost our presence,”. The statement made by Kentaro resembles the statement made in the 2022 New Year’s message by Softbank president and CEO Junichi Miyakawa where he highlighted the metaverse and insisted that this concept will generate new services and business models.

The shares of Z Holdings climbed by 4% whereas the owner company saw shares climb by 1.8 percent.

About Z Holdings

Z Holdings is a Tokyo-based holding firm. It is owned by A Holdings which is again jointly owned by SoftBank Group along with South Korea’s Naver Corporation. Both held 59% of Z Holdings according to the latest data. Yahoo Japan Corp. which is the largest internet portal website in Japan, and the largest mobile messaging app in Japan, Line Corp. is owned by Z Holdings. It also owns the largest QR code-based mobile payment service in Japan, PayPay. Softbank’s most lucrative investment was Paypay. In March 2021 after merging Yahoo! Japan Corp. with Line Corporation, Z Holdings acquired a $43 billion market capitalization.   

Other companies introducing NFTs:

As per the report, in this year, Animoca Brands also planning to introduce an NFT marketplace in Japan. In February, Japanese online retail company Rakuten launched its own NFT marketplace after which Softbank entered into the world of NFTs. For minting and selling NFTs Rakuten has a peer-to-peer service. OpenSea, Coinbase, FTX, Rarible, Looksrare, Magic Eden, and Crypto.com are some of the other well-established companies in this area.

Indrani bose

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA