2023-06-09 15:42:29
With a growth forecast of 6% to 8% in 2023, the global luxury market is not experiencing the crisis, according to analysts Bain & Co and Altagamma. In Africa, the masstige and high-end market continues to grow, as does the luxury branch. This development illustrates an underlying trend in the luxury and ultra-luxury market, with strategic buyers coming mainly from Europe, Asia and America. In this industry where objects are no longer bought to affirm a social status, their investments aim to enable them to build up a heritage and diversify their assets.
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To take off, African luxury must choose a local positioning
With 6,700 African multimillionaires (a person with an investable wealth of 10 million dollars or more), the luxury sector in Africa is constantly expanding and distinguishing itself by the quality of the services offered – in especially in real estate hotelier and private aviation, as noted by Emma Berkovits, CEO of AccessAir, during the conference on ultra-luxury in Africa, on September 15, 2022 in Monaco.
However, despite a potential market, the African continent remains an area under-invested by international brands, and we look in vain for the emergence of luxury brands with African roots. In the meantime, one of the keys to accelerated growth that might put Africa at the center of the global luxury map might be digital, and in particular the different creative spaces that are the metaverse and NFTs ( not fungible token).
Buy a yacht with bitcoins
The digital world is becoming a new space of consumption, even creation, with augmented reality and virtual reality that draw a digital double of the real world. Under the encompassing term of metaverse, digital universes are hatching – which are all marketplaces where luxury assets are exchanged in the form of NFTs, digital assets stored on the blockchain that serve as certificates of authenticity for unique digital or physical assets – this which allows them to be resold in a secure manner.
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Manifesto for a “made in Africa” luxury industry
Works of art, clothing and luxury items can be sold as NFTs, attesting to their provenance and authenticity. The African continent is seeing a burgeoning of projects to launch the continent’s next metaverse, with initiatives regarding to be launched.
With the first sales in cryptocurrencies, web 3.0 is gradually transforming the codes of creation, and the expectations of ultra-luxury customers. Today, it has even become possible to buy a yacht in bitcoins, and it should be possible to book a night in a luxury hotel thanks to the payment in cryptocurrencies, or even to receive a reçu in the form of NFT, giving the right to exclusive advantages. This new mode of consumption et of creation can be a growth accelerator for the luxury sector with African roots.
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Cryptocurrencies: 2023, year zero for Africa
In this digital world, NFTs are set to become the most ubiquitous asset class, facilitating all transactions: the purchase, investment, resale of luxury items. In 2021, 94% of the world’s very wealthy have stepped up their investments in digital assets. And they are also the ones who have benefited the most, with an increase in the value of their digital assets of 3,850% since 2021. Another fact, in 2022, 51% of French luxury players were planning an NFT project before 2025.
Visibility multiplier
For creators, it is a space without borders in which new African brands can meet an international clientele in addition to physical stores. It is a multiplier of visibility and vocations which, unlike traditional social networks, offers an immersive and innovative experience, while highlighting know-how.
And for customers, NFTs guarantee the authenticity and value of physical and digital goods, which translates into the assurance of truly unique, tamper-proof goods, and substantial capital gains on the secondary market in a logic of investment.
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Jambo, MaishaPay, Tinda… The rising tech scene in the DRC
The metaverse and NFTs are promising technologies, and it is pertinent that African entrepreneurs seize it and multiply the projects likely to seduce the luxury industry. They will also be able to bring visibility to African creators, and to all the subcontractors who depend on them, but will not be able to do so without adequate funding and infrastructure. This is why it is essential that sufficient investment be devoted to connectivity, training and IT security, in order to create an environment conducive to the development of large-scale projects, capable of putting the African continent and its gems at the center of the map of the luxe international.
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