“Metaverse Style” Media Closing? Operator Rebrands to “AKIBA WOW” after Two Name Changes in a Month

Metaverse Style, a metaverse media site operated by Metaverse Media Hong Kong Limited, a Hong Kong company founded in 2021, is no longer accessible with the message “This account has been suspended” and the site is no longer accessible. Bing’s cache shows that crawlers were able to access the site as of October 17, and the Internet Archive shows a similar screen as of November 19, 2024, suggesting that the site was closed in the meantime.

At the time of the first issue, the editor-in-chief was interested in sustainable media business

Metaverse Style

“Metaverse Style” was operated exclusively in Japanese, despite being operated by a Hong Kong corporation, and the founding editor-in-chief was Rumi Tomiya, who lives in Hong Kong. Rumi Tomiya (@rumitomiya ) joined Accenture, Inc. as a new graduate and is interested in sustainable media business, and it was thought that “Metaverse Style” would also be sustainable, but it has not been updated since last May. It was thought that the site itself would survive at least, but the site itself and the media outlet failed to sustain itself for three years.

At the time of its launch, it was “the world’s first online media specializing in the Metaverse! It is sad to see the world’s first online media specialized in the Metaverse quietly disappear from the world. I checked and found that the domain name is still alive, so I wish they had at least used a free web server or something to keep the site alive, even if it is impossible to keep updating the archives.

The Japanese subsidiary’s site is still accessible.

The website of Metaverse Technologies LLC, a subsidiary (Japanese subsidiary) of Metaverse Media Hong Kong Limited, the company that operates the site, is accessible at “https://metaverse- tech.com/” can be accessed, but “Metaverse Style” is no longer displayed on the site.

The Hong Kong headquarters of the company has been renamed twice.

Hong Kong Company Directory

The C.R. Number of the operator, “Metaverse Media Hong Kong Limited,” is ” 3089261,” which indicates that on March 21, 2024, ” Metaverse Media Hong Kong Limited” was renamed ” Future Arena The company changed its name to “Future Arena Sports (Hong Kong) Limited ” on March 21, 2024, and then to ” AKIBA WOW Company Limited ” on April 15, 2024, one month later.

However, the name of “Metaverse Technologies LLC,” which was a subsidiary at the time of the first issue of “Metaverse Style,” remained unchanged. It is unclear whether the capital relationship was dissolved and the parent company became a separate entity, but the Japanese subsidiary’s website has been closed, so there is no way to inquire about it.

AKIBA WOW, a real-world Akihabara tour service, was born.

AKIBA WOW

A search for AKIBA WOW reveals a website called AKIBAWOW (akibawow.com), which acquired the domain name on April 15, 2024. Since the date of domain name acquisition and the company name change are the same, it may mean that “AKIBAWOW” was started instead of continuing “Metaverse Style”. Partners include the AKIBA Tourism Council and LIKE JAPAN, a Hong Kong-based media outlet that provides information about Japan.

It is regrettable that “AKIBA WOW” has changed from a media that transmits information in the virtual metaverse on the Internet to a tour service in the real world, but we wish for the future development of “AKIBA WOW”.