Major South African companies dip their toes into metaverse marketing through Roblox

Roblox has more than 70 million daily active users and is attracting interest from big South African companies. (SOPA Images/Getty Images)

Big South African firms, including Nedbank, Massmart through Game, Pick n Pay, and Wesgro, have experimented with using Roblox, a type of early metaverse, to launch games or campaigns.

Roblox is a platform that allows users to build and participate in 3-D virtual experiences. It allows users to build games using the Lua coding language that a large, and fast-growing, network of players can access.

While the term metaverse is still loosely defined, Roblox meets many of the common criteria for a metaverse by offering access to a virtual economy, user-generated content, and a digital substitute for social interactions.