Pursuing the Web5 (Web2 + Web3) Ecosystem: MEET48's Dual Path of Fan Economy and AI
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Pursuing the Web5 (Web2 + Web3) Ecosystem: MEET48's Dual Path of Fan Economy and AI
Behind the impressive data growth, how has MEET48 successfully addressed the metaverse challenge, and what insights can it offer to other metaverse or Web3 projects struggling with growth?
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Nancy, PANews
From being wildly popular to nearly deserted, the metaverse business is undergoing a post-hype capital retreat. Yet MEET48, a social metaverse platform driven by Web3 and AI technologies, has become a "beachcomber," collecting valuable "seafood" as the tide recedes.
Recently, MEET48 accumulated approximately 2 million new registered wallets and over 20 million NFT votes across two voting events, with more than 4 million on-chain interactions. Behind these impressive growth metrics, how is MEET48 answering the challenge of the metaverse—and what lessons can it offer other metaverse or Web3 projects struggling with user growth? To explore these questions, PANews recently interviewed Kai Xu, COO of MEET48.
Democratizing Entertainment: Mutual Achievement Between Idol Growth and Fans
When discussing entertainment within the metaverse space, external observers naturally recall numerous celebrity participants whose involvement in promoting metaverse products was once widespread. While such star power did open marketing opportunities for brands, most of these products have since faded into obscurity—some even landing their founders in court.
On this topic, Kai Xu stated bluntly in the interview that “celebrity” is an outcome, not a starting point. Using celebrities to promote metaverse or NFT projects is essentially a traditional form of traffic monetization. Take so-called “celebrity NFTs,” for example—their value does not align with the actual brand equity of the celebrity. People invest in brand endorsements, but after purchasing these NFTs, owners cannot truly participate in the celebrity’s daily life or influence their future direction. Eventually, buyers realize these NFTs lack utility and fail to circulate among collectors.
In contrast, MEET48 centers its metaverse narrative around the idol market. “Idols are co-created by the community and fans through long-term nurturing, forming assets grounded in shared consensus. The process itself is the experience—users gain fulfillment through participation, while commercialization becomes just one component of the system. As users engage in idol cultivation, they also share in the value generated by the idol’s growth. This makes idol development inherently compatible with Web3’s consensus mechanisms,” Kai Xu told PANews. Building on this foundation, MEET48 aims to leverage AI and Web3 technologies and mechanisms to build an immersive social metaverse platform for pan-entertainment, democratizing entertainment and enabling Web3 to reach mainstream audiences through entertainment applications.
However, entering the idol industry means MEET48 must appeal to a much broader user base. It's important to note that for most ordinary users, Web3 technology still presents high barriers to entry and participation.
To reduce friction, MEET48 has created seamless onboarding pathways. At the infrastructure level, MEET48 developed an account abstraction (AA) wallet embedded within its DApp and partnered with leading Web3 infrastructure providers like OKX Web3 Wallet, offering non-crypto-native users a smoother, less visible onboarding experience. Additionally, limitations in TPS capacity and high gas fees often hinder mass participation—especially during large-scale voting events. To address this, MEET48 is actively seeking mainchains capable of supporting high-frequency transactions at lower costs for deployment and collaboration.
On the other hand, MEET48 enhances user motivation. Kai Xu explained that human behavior is fundamentally driven by two forces: financial incentives and emotional engagement. Most current Web3 projects rely solely on the former to fuel FOMO (fear of missing out), but when returns decline or losses occur, the ecosystem collapses rapidly—a phenomenon commonly known as the “death spiral.” Therefore, beyond monetary rewards, MEET48 fosters emotional bonds between idols and fans to create deeper psychological engagement. Within the MEET48 ecosystem, fan participation isn’t purely profit-driven; instead, it offers significant emotional satisfaction. Seeing their supported idol grow and achieve success fulfills the core desire—what’s often called “creating for love.” If fans can also share in the financial upside of an idol’s success, that’s an added bonus—one that traditional Web2 models simply cannot deliver.
Integrating AI and Web3 Mechanics to Elevate Star-Making Models and User Experience
“MEET48 grants full control and ownership to both idols and fans. An idol’s development depends directly on user voting—for instance, annual idol elections, best song selections, or favorite couple polls. Compared to traditional artist markets dominated by institutions or resource gatekeepers, the integration of Web3 ensures fairness, transparency, and openness in elections, while allowing all participants to share in the idol’s growth value. NFTs unify and identify users who share idol culture values, while tokenization incentivizes and supports all ecosystem contributors. These features fill experiential gaps left by traditional idol fandoms and expand the potential of the idol market through Web3’s unique capabilities,” Kai Xu explained to PANews.
Although traditional star-making models—evidenced by popular trainee systems and proliferating talent shows—are already well-established, emerging technologies like AI, Web3, and the metaverse are increasingly being integrated into the entertainment industry to upgrade operations and enhance user experiences.
As a decentralized and open metaverse idol ecosystem, MEET48 is helping make idol culture more accessible to the masses. Currently, MEET48 has built a rich product matrix. For example, its AI data models enable the creation of virtual idols, choreograph dances, and generate songs. Users can also leverage AI tools to create UGC content, lowering creative barriers and enabling monetization. The virtual theater allows users to stage performances featuring real or virtual idols, supporting live streaming and video-on-demand uploads, and even VR experiences via compatible hardware. Furthermore, MEET48 integrates various elements such as virtual land, NFTs, GameFi, and SocialFi into its ecosystem. Pet48 includes pet simulation, AI companions, and NFT breeding; virtual land enables users to purchase plots to build idol cities or other worlds; DAncing offers rhythm games, social DApps, and reward-based competitions; Monster48 provides player-versus-player battles, collectibles, and adventure gameplay. These diverse functionalities significantly enrich the platform’s playability and entertainment value.
Kai Xu added, “We aim to leverage mass media to drive large-scale adoption. The bridge between Web2 and Web3 users can be built through entertainment content—after all, people will never say no to entertainment. Therefore, MEET48 plans to launch a series of GameFi and SocialFi products centered on music, dance, and casual entertainment, enabling more mainstream users to enter the MEET48 metaverse through these offerings. We’re already collaborating with major TV networks and streaming platforms to produce related content. Imagine users influencing the rankings of a talent show simply by playing a game—every action they take could directly impact the final results. That’s why we want to move beyond the current crypto community and bring more content consumers into Web3 as quickly as possible.”
Additionally, MEET48 employs tokenomics to further incentivize user participation. Its governance token $MEET can be used to purchase NFTs, participate in governance, and vote for idols—where voting determines the amount of resources an idol receives and shares revenue from votes. According to MEET48, there are future plans to open up the entire ecosystem to allow compatible third-party projects to integrate, earn $MEET, and potentially issue their own tokens (exchangeable with $MEET).
Building the Roblox of Entertainment: Upcoming Web3 Idol Election
According to MEET48’s roadmap, the platform will launch its second annual Web3 Idol Grand Finals in June this year. In addition to voting for real-life idols, the event will now include virtual idols, which Kai Xu believes will attract greater user conversion and deliver outstanding results. On the product front, MEET48 will continue focusing on AI and UGC creation, aiming to lower the barrier for user-generated content so that anyone can create their own digital human and develop them into a virtual idol.
“For average users, creating idols was once unimaginable. Developing virtual idols is inherently difficult—not to mention the complexity and cost of content production. Even few companies can afford long-term development and operation of virtual idols. But the AI applications and SaaS tools MEET48 is about to release will completely disrupt this status quo. At the same time, MEET48 will establish support mechanisms for high-quality virtual idols, promote premium content, and host virtual idol concerts.”
Kai Xu also emphasized in the interview that AI will trigger an explosion in virtual idol content creation, while MEET48’s ecosystem and mechanisms will protect creators’ rights and incentivize high-quality output. These优质 contents will then generate greater visibility and traffic, attracting more users to join the ecosystem. Of course, MEET48’s vision extends beyond virtual idols—it aims to build a comprehensive, highly flexible Web3 entertainment metaverse, positioning itself as the “Roblox” of the Web3 + entertainment space.
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