Animoca Brands Japan, a strategic subsidiary of Hong Kong-based gaming firm Animoca Brands Corporation Limited (Animoca Brands), has invested in Passion Labs, a platform providing customer experience and community engagement tools to empower users with data ownership and help brands build communities.

Following the investment, Animoca Brands Japan will collaborate with Passion Labs to help Japanese companies develop their Web3 strategies and create Web3 communities with the use of Passion Labs’ technology for KOC (Key Opinion Consumer) analysis in Japan, further fostering the historically strong foundations of trade and friendship between Japan and Taiwan, Animoca Brands said in a statement on Friday.

Passion Labs, founded in Taiwan in 2022, empowers luxury and automotives brands in Japan and Asia-Pacific by providing analytics to strengthen their communities.

The firm envisions and enables a world of true data ownership. It redefines the data sharing infrastructure between brands and users through “non fungible tokens (NFTs) as Cookies”.

Passion-enabled NFTs act as zero and first party data for brands to strengthen its customer channels while bringing users full control of their personal data and unlocking branded culture and experiences.

“We are thrilled to invest in Passion Labs because we believe that its services will be an integral part of Web3, where community engagement is critical,” said Kyoya Okazawa, Co-Founder of Animoca Brands Japan.

“Last December, we joined Passion Labs’ founder Keegan Huang and Porsche’s marketing director Daniel Feucht on stage at NFT Taipei to discuss what Web3 means for luxury brands,

“The role of Key Opinion Consumers is important because Web3 seeks to empower the community. We will continue to contribute to the value creation of companies in Web3 through these investments,” he added.

Passion Labs Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Keegan Huang said :”It is with great pleasure and honor that we announce that we have entered into a capital and strategic alliance with Animoca Brands Japan, with whom we already had the pleasure to support Bentley Japan’s entrance into Web3.”

“This is meaningful as Taiwan steps into the global spotlight of leveraging proprietary blockchain technology to fuel communities,

“Our entrepreneurial journey was inspired by Animoca Brands and Mr. Yat Siu, whose advice, example, leadership, and conviction in supporting builders and shaping the world for the better served as a beacon, helping us to navigate the uncertainties of entrepreneurship,” he added.

Founded in 2021, Animoca Brands Japan (corporate name: Animoca Brands K.K.) is the strategic subsidiary in Japan of Animoca Brands Corporation Limited, a leading global Web3 company.

Animoca Brands Japan was established to support the global Web3 strategies of Japanese intellectual property and content holders such as major publishers, brands, education, sports teams, athletes, artists and game companies.

The firm provides a platform that combines IPs with blockchain technology, and supports IP holders to build their own ecosystem through a full stack of Web3 services, providing a bridge between Japanese IPs and global fans.

Animoca Brands is a leader in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification that is working to advance digital property rights and contribute to the establishment of the open metaverse.

The company develops and publishes a broad portfolio of products including the REVV token and SAND token; original games including The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes; and products utilizing popular intellectual properties including Disney, WWE, Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, Power Rangers, MotoGP™, and Formula E.

It has multiple subsidiaries, including The Sandbox, Blowfish Studios, Quidd, GAMEE, nWay, Pixowl, Forj, Lympo, Animoca Brands Japan, Grease Monkey Games, Eden Games, Darewise Entertainment, Notre Game, TinyTap, Be Media, PIXELYNX, and WePlay Media.

Animoca Brands has a growing portfolio of more than 380 Web3 investments, including Colossal, Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs (NBA Top Shot), Yield Guild Games, Harmony, Alien Worlds, Star Atlas, and others.

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