How Web2 Brands Win Web3

TL; DR

• Initial buyers of Starbucks’ Odyssey NFTs are still making profits across the board, even after the NFT market tanked.

• This may be because Starbucks’ NFT holders are also customers of the coffee company.

• Their regular protection from Starbucks encourages holders to continue buying/selling/acquiring the underlying NFT collection.

• As a result, it is supported throughout the down market.

Full story

Things we’ve said before and will say again:

1. Web2 and older brands have the greatest opportunities in Web3.

2. Web3 technology must become invisible to the end user.

3. Reading books is weird. (You’re going to stare at symbols printed on tree shavings and hallucinate? Get a grip).

On that first point… we just found a new signal that supports the argument.

Remember a few months ago when we reported that minters of Starbucks’ Odyssey NFTs were making profits across the board?

Well, since then the NFT market has fallen even further (not great).

Yet all Odyssey holders still make a profit!

Why? We don’t know for sure, but we have a sneaking suspicion that it all has to do with their established activities.

This is the idea:

When a Web3 native NFT project is launched, the NFT collection includes virtually the entire product offering. There are no other existing companies that can support it. So when the NFT market tanks, the collection often goes with it.

While Starbucks’ NFT holders are also customers of its coffee business (which is the core of the brand).

And their regular support of Starbucks encourages holders to continue buying/selling/acquiring the underlying NFT collection (and keeping it afloat during tough times).

Think of it as Apple AirTags and Tile (a similar/competing product).

If widespread interest in tag tracking were to wane tomorrow, Apple’s AirTag business would be more resilient (because it has other products that bring users into its ecosystem).

But Tile would be at a much higher risk of collapse (product tracking is their whole business).

Point is: The opportunity to take advantage of Web3 technology is open to both Web2/legacy brands and Web3 native brands.

The difference is that Web2 brands have a better chance of weathering market storms.