Multinational coffeehouse Starbucks has announced that it will be entering the NFT market in 2022. Company CEO, Howard Schultz revealed that the company was keen on leveraging its rich history, tradition and strong brand. Schultz’s return to Starbucks is symbolic. As former CEO, he helped grow the company from less than 100 stores to over 28,000 branches across multiple nations.
While the company did not reveal the exact date or the nature of its involvement in the NFT market, it will likely be dropping its own collectables. Also, some believe that it could go all in and establish its own NFT marketplace. Ideally, such a marketplace would target global corporate brands like Coca Cola, Pepsi, Chipotle, and similar brands.
Notably, Schultz is barely a week old in his returning role as the CEO. Therefore, the NFT idea was probably conceived long before his appointment. He will be holding the position for a temporary term as Starbucks navigates through the unionization demands by its employees. Nonetheless, he could be the one to oversee Starbucks’ integration with the metaverse, considering that the company expects to do so before the year ends.
The move into the metaverse wouldn’t be the first by a global brand. Many large-cap companies have already established a presence in the digital universe by buying prime virtual plots and building virtual headquarters in metaverse games such as The Sandbox and Decentraland. While making the announcement, Schultz hinted that the company would pay greater attention to NFTs. He pointed to Starbucks’ rich history, brand recognition and tradition, which he said put it on a higher pedestal than many brands that have already launched their NFTs.
About Starbucks
Starbucks is a Seattle-based multinational coffeehouse with more than 28,000 branches and over 350,000 employees across 80+ nations. It helped popularize the global coffee culture, thanks to its large variety of coffee beverages. However, while it is primarily known for its coffee, Starbucks also offers other beverages, cold drinks, pastries and snacks. It is listed on Nasdaq and is worth over $96 billion as of April 2022.