Vurse currently counts 35 people as team members and Sakib aims to grow it into having a 5,000 – strong team in Dubai over the next five years. His Dubai-focused plans have been boosted also by the announcement of the Dubai Metaverse Strategy, which is designed to ensure that the contribution of the metaverse sector to the Emirate’s economy increases to US$4 billion by 2030. “Because Dubai is already known for its beautiful infrastructure, I think it’s time for it to be known for its digital vision and cutting edge deep-tech sector too,” Sakib says.
The Emirate’s history seems to have also inspired Sakib’s philosophy for his business, in that he is eager to give it strong foundations that are expected to both empower and uphold its digital development in the future. This is especially evident through Sakib’s choice to simultaneously work on the three verticals of Vurse, which include an interactive short video platform, a blockchain-based ecosystem for content creators, and a Vurse metaverse. Starting with the Vurse short video platform, Sakib says that its key differentiator lies in the fact that it is not focused on user consumption, but user interaction. “One of our key drivers is to enable young people to make smarter choices in the way they interact with and consume content,” he says. “What I see today is that peoples consumption of social media is not correlated with the quality of the content or the value they can drive out of their time on it. With Vurse, we’re also trying to enhance the creators’ experience by supporting them in producing content that is intellectually stimulating, entertaining, and driving economic value. Once that happens, consumption will happen organically.”
Mass blockchain adoption might follow the opposite trajectory, Sakib added, in that it will happen sooner than we expect. “Blockchain is an emerging technology, and people are getting more serious about it, because those younger generations are very tech and business savvy,” he says. “If you ask them about tokens or coins, they will give you all sorts of ideas, so I can say that adoption is happening at a very rapid pace and will accelerate even more.” The missing part, according to Sakib, is creating blockchain technology solutions “that can be used even by a five-year-old, and that can be explained in like two sentences, literally.”
I really liked the innovation and acknowledgement of modern tech in this article. Clearly blockchain and tech solutions is a rapidly growing field. Being able to take advantage of that through innovation is a great way to establish yourself in the product design world!