Paris Hilton this week announced that her company, 11:11 Media, will bring her world to the immersive virtual game world of The Sandbox.
There, she will launch a “land” in which she will interact with her fans and sell digital goods. The platform says Hilton is “planning social and community events like rooftop parties and glamorous social experiences in her virtual Malibu mansion” – with 11 versions of the inspired avatars. Inspired by Hilton.
Sandbox, which describes itself as a leading “decentralized virtual world” i.e. “part virtual real estate, part amusement park”, has 300 existing partnerships, with the likes of Warner Music Group and video game maker Ubisoft, along with other celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Steve Aoki, along with brands like The Smurfs and Adidas.
In an exclusive interview with CNBC, Hilton said she wants to bring her own metaverse from Roblox into other platforms.
“Snoop Dogg unleashed his world into it, it was unbelievable, and I was so excited to see that,” she said. “I’m really excited to bring the world of Paris everywhere – we’ll be working with a few other platforms.”
In The Sandbox, she’ll be selling Paris-inspired NFTs and hosting virtual parties – but she says this is just the beginning of what she hopes to build.
“Right now, we’re mainly focused on experiences, not monetization because that’s not the focus right now,” Hilton said. “But we’re going to be making digital wearables and working with different brands, and there’s a lot of exciting projects that I can’t announce yet.”
Hilton first joined the metaverse when she built “Paris Hilton World” inside Roblox late last year. She launched the space with a virtual New Year’s Eve party in which her avatar was the DJ. Then she DJs what she calls a “Neon Carnival” timed to Coachella. Roblox says that Hilton’s virtual world has been visited by nearly 544,000 fans – but won’t say how much revenue it generates.
For Hilton, a virtual presence is an opportunity to reach more people – not needing the 250-day-a-year travel she took before the pandemic.
“On New Year’s Eve, I was DJing in the Maldives. It was my honeymoon and I played and had more people at Paris World than in Times Square in New York,” said Hilton. “At the Neon Festival, we had almost half a million people there, and in the real-life party there were 5,000. That’s the power of the metaverse, where you can make people from all over the world enjoy it. and experience what’s normally, you know, exclusive events.”
Paris Hilton attends a private viewing of “Vogue x Snapchat: Redefining The Body, Curated By Edward Enninful OBE”, an interactive augmented reality (AR) exhibition, at Center d’art La Malmaison on June 19, 2022 in Cannes, France.
David M. Benett | beautiful pictures
Hilton started investing in crypto in 2016 – before crypto was erratic – and she has been selling NFT since April of last year. Before that market dropped in price recently, last year she sold one for more than $1 million. She also invests in a number of startups in the field, including Genies, which creates custom avatars and has attracted investments from former Disney CEO Bob Iger, the artist entertainer and model Priyanka Chopra and other celebrities.
Now, Hilton is looking to connect her real-world businesses – such as a sportswear line – with her digital businesses.
“We want to be able to do [something] where people can buy tracksuits and then also get a digital version of their avatar to wear,” said Hilton. That’s what we’re going to do a lot of – things that are happening in reality, I’m going to have them happen in the metaverse at the same time. ”
And she’s talking to other metaverse platforms to expand her presence. She didn’t say which one, but said what she liked Facebook parents Meta doing.
11:11 Hilton’s Media is private and doesn’t disclose its finances, but says the company’s business has doubled from last year to this year and is expected to generate tens of millions of dollars in profits. profit this year.
There’s also no word on what kind of profit – or loss – she’s seen from her crypto investments over the years, but her company says she’s generated 3, $5 million from NFT this year.
As for what happened to the metaverse and the NFTs she’s been promoting over the years, it’s too early to tell.
