A fuschia Bentley drives along a winding desert road towards the entrance to the Neon Carnival, a party held every year during Coachella. Paris Hilton has arrived. Her hair is in pigtails, braided in part with white flowers, and she’s wearing a bright pink jumpsuit that matches her platform boots.
She greets fans on a red carpet, heads to a crowded dance floor, and eventually finds her way to the karts. Hilton personally attends the invite-only party every year, but this particular scene took place last month at Paris World, Hilton’s virtual experience on the popular gaming platform Roblox, where she joined as an avatar. Nearly 400,000 Roblox users visited his virtual Neon Carnival that mid-April weekend, about 40 times the number of people who went in real life this year, according to Hilton. (The digital event was sponsored by Levi’s and designed in part by Brent Bolthouse, the founder of the original Neon Carnival.)
It’s a concept that Hilton has had success with before. On New Year’s Eve, she DJed a live set in the same virtual world, playing as her avatar. At Paris World, users can also buy virtual clothes, book a jet ski tour or pay to gain access to a VIP section of a club.
“I’ve always been a geek in disguise, so I’m obsessed with anything tech-related and the future,” Hilton told CNN Business in an interview last month. “Now my new nickname is ‘The Queen of the Metaverse,'” she added, referring to a nickname she used on the red carpet and in several of her social media posts, which, according to her company 11:11 Media , first appeared in the NFT space on Twitter.
Hilton has been a trendsetter. She likely became an influencer before the term even existed after her reality show, “The Simple Life,” debuted in 2003. But Hilton, the great-granddaughter of hotel mogul Conrad Hilton, has also been working to redefine her public image as a businesswoman. of success and consolidate its status as an innovator. It has recently embraced two interesting but speculative trends in technology: the metaverse, a vision for an immersive virtual world that doesn’t yet exist; and non-fungible tokens, known as NFTs, which refer to pieces of digital content tied to the blockchain, the digital ledger system that underpins various cryptocurrencies.
Hilton has invested in a number of technology companies, including supporting digital avatar startup Genies and the animation app immi, which allows some NFT owners to bring characters to life in their digital artwork. She also purchased a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT, an expensive and highly sought after collection that attracted celebrity shoppers. Hilton also created her own NFT artwork. One of his latest NFT pieces, called the “Iconic Crypto Queen” and created in collaboration with popular NFT artist Blake Kathryn, sold for $1.111 million – a reference to 11:11 Media, Hilton’s new company with the name of your favorite time of day.
While the future of the metaverse and NFTs remains uncertain, likely even more so for the latter following a cryptocurrency market slump this month, some say there is real potential for celebrities embracing virtual meetings and products. “For celebrities, like brands, this is another way to engage with their fans and audiences,” said Michael Inouye, principal analyst at ABI Research.
“That could be through virtual events, concerts, concerts and more. They could sell virtual merchandise so fans could showcase their fandom in both their real and virtual lives.” Its bet on these digital products and services is just one part of Hilton’s growing empire.
Last fall, Paris Hilton brought all her initiatives to 11:11 Media. The company includes its 19 product lines, such as fragrances, apparel and makeup, which have surpassed more than $4 billion in all-time revenue, according to the company. It also includes his production company Slivington Manor Entertainment – which is behind TV projects like “Cooking with Paris” and “Paris Hilton in Love” – and his podcast company London Audio.
“We are growing rapidly and we want to find the talent of people interested in this space,” said Hilton. To that end, Hilton is partnering with ZipRecruiter, an online platform for job seekers, to add more employees to its roster. 11:11 The media is soon launching a sweepstakes for someone to win an mentorship program with her in Los Angeles to learn many aspects of running her business.
“Orientation is also very important to me. My mentor was my grandfather,” she said of the late Barron Hilton, the business mogul who was former president, president and CEO of Hilton Hotels Corporation. “It’s just all the advice he’s given me and the support has really stayed with me throughout my career. I want to be able to do that for someone else.”
A voz the NFTs
In 2019, Hilton emerged as one of the first celebrity promoters of NFTs. She was approached by a friend who was raising money for recovery efforts related to Australia’s bushfires at the time. When Hilton was asked to create a digital artwork on her iPad, she drew one of her cats, Munchkin. All proceeds went to charity.
“I then found myself on sites like the Clubhouse during the pandemic talking to artists about the NFT world and meeting with leaders in space,” she said. “I became obsessed with it and started collaborating with artists… It’s something I really believe in.” She has since become a public voice for NFTs. During an appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” earlier this year, Hilton and Fallon shared photos of their Bored Ape NFTs in a conversation that one news outlet described as “frankly, hallucinogenic.” The year before, she used her time on the show to teach Fallon about how NFTs work.
Other celebrities including Snoop Dogg, Lindsay Lohan and Shawn Mendes have launched their own NFTs. But recently there have been signs that the NFT market may be deflating. The NFT market dropped to a daily average of about 19,000 sales earlier this month, compared with 225,000 in September, according to data cited by the Wall Street Journal.
In 2021, then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet published as an NFT, for cryptocurrency valued at $2.9 million, but when the man who bought it put it up for sale, it attracted offers for a fraction of the price. price. The price of Bitcoin – the largest cryptocurrency – dropped below $30,000 earlier this month and has struggled to rise above that level ever since. It remains down more than 50% from its record in November.
Other cryptocurrencies have also been hit hard in recent weeks. Along with the risks associated with the volatility of NFTs and the wider crypto space, fraud and theft also persist. Some celebrities have also had class-action suits brought against them for allegedly participating in so-called “pump and dump” encryption schemes.
“They are often associated with cryptocurrencies, where celebrity rises, and when people invest in them, they turn around and sell their currency at a profit,” Inouye said. “This speaks to the less flavorful side of the whole NFT-blockchain-crypto, which is at least in part driven by hype and speculation.” Hilton said she has been cautious about not giving advice on what people should buy, noting that she is only interested in NFTs to “support artists” and “not for investment reasons”.
A shift in public perception
Hilton has proven to be a successful businesswoman for years, but she said the public perception of her – which was fixated on her status as an heiress and socialite – didn’t change until the release of the 2020 documentary “This is Paris.”
The film, released on YouTube and viewed more than 58 million times, denounced the abuse she allegedly faced at a boarding school as a teenager. “The documentary changed my life in every way,” she said. “For a long time, people had so many misconceptions about me because of the character I was playing… almost as a coping mechanism. Now they understand who I really am and what I’ve been through. I’m not a dumb blonde. . I’m really good at pretending to be one.”
Since the documentary’s release, she has worked to change laws in seven states as part of an effort to crack down on abusive facilities for young people. Earlier this month, Paris Hilton visited the White House to discuss new legislation aimed at protecting children in such programs.
“I will always be grateful to ‘The Simple Life’ because it really helped me launch my brand and all my businesses. But there is so much more to me,” she said. “I want to be known and respected for the business I am, for the business and brand I created and for being an advocate for children who have suffered the abuse and trauma that I and so many others have suffered.”
Paris Hilton said she continues to look for new ways to innovate online and offline, grow her NFT collection and help others develop their own brands. “It’s amazing now with technology available to anyone in their living room – whether they have a Wi-Fi connection, an iPhone or whatever they’re capturing their content on – they’re able to build a brand, support their families, express yourself that way,” she said. “It makes me proud to have created this new genre of celebrity. … I love being an innovator and someone who’s first on things. It’s just amazing to see what that has turned into.”
Translated matter from CNN Business – Samantha Murphy Kelly.
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