5Y News | Metaverse Ecosystem Platform Oasis Raises Tens of Millions of Dollars in Series B Funding

五源资本·March 7, 2022

Explore and create new order.

Metaverse social platform Oasis recently announced the completion of a tens-of-millions-of-dollars Series B round, led by 5Y Capital, Oasis Capital, and BAI Capital.

Yuan Ye, Partner at 5Y Capital, said: "People's need to record and share their status, perspectives, and experiences with each other is enduring. Past and existing social products have typically relied on synchronous, abstract slices of time — 140 characters, a photo, or a short video. Oasis is trying to use new creative production tools that let users create and share unique experiences, shifting the smallest unit from time slices to individual experiences. 3D, avatars, VR, environments, and AI are all technological means to enable the creation and sharing of experiences. Going forward, we look forward to a future where users can create and experience millions of different experiences in Oasis, better understanding and feeling others and the world."

Founded in 2018, Oasis had previously received investment from 5Y Capital, BAI Capital, Zhichun Capital, K2VC, and Qinghan Fund. According to SensorTower statistics, Oasis added more than 6 million registered users in Q4 2021, making it one of the fastest-growing metaverse social products globally.

Yin Sang

Founder of Oasis

Is the metaverse necessarily a better world? Can the confusions of the real world be resolved there?

Yin Sang: In absolute terms, yes; in relative terms, not necessarily.

Why absolutely? The metaverse can "break the law of conservation of energy." For example, limited real-world resources make it impossible for everyone to cheaply enjoy a large concert, but in the metaverse it's possible, with no upper limit on attendance. Physical rules are broken too — you can go to N parties every night, whereas in reality, especially post-COVID, physical constraints are overwhelming. Then there's the rule of time: in the real world it's hard to be present in multiple scenes simultaneously, but in the metaverse you can. Overall, people in the metaverse can enjoy richer, more diverse experiences more efficiently and at lower cost. For ordinary people, this is unquestionably a better world.

But relatively speaking, it's hard to say. Where there are people, there are hierarchies and groups. This new world of the metaverse will certainly offer better social ladders to those who enter earlier, but in the end it can't escape human nature's greed, anger, and delusion.

Human history doesn't simply repeat, yet it has striking similarities. But after every technological transformation, people's lives become better — this I believe without doubt.

Has any particular work influenced you (books, films, music, games, anything)?

Yin Sang: Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In this book, Nietzsche emphasizes that man is not the far shore, but the dangerous narrow bridge between cliffs. If one stops and stares into the abyss, one falls; if one moves forward resolutely, one can reach the far shore and become the overhuman.

Today's world is much the same. Many people are content with the status quo, living in a stupor, "involuting" within the existing stock, scoffing at the spirit of adventure — because they have defined present-day "humanity" as the far shore and the endgame. I have always believed that humanity is still on the journey. We should more actively explore the silicon-based world and outer space, not fear breaking social norms, and actively embrace and create new orders.

Why did you accept investment from 5Y?

Yin Sang: Values. I've always believed investors and founders are partners, collaborators, fellow travelers on a fantastical adventure.

When choosing fellow travelers, the 5Y team's values stir me the most. They chase crazy dreams and make firm bets on futures they believe in. They care more about the founder as a "person" — they pay attention to personal growth and understand human weakness, offering guidance when you're lost and sounding the alarm when you're getting carried away.

Often I feel they are my partners, not my investors.

Tong Ji

Senior Investment Manager at 5Y Capital

Why did you invest in Oasis? What traits of the founder and team impressed you?

Tong Ji: "Sharp." Jeff is very direct — he disdains many things while revering others. His entrepreneurship is him voting with his actions for what he believes in.

5Y has always been willing to support people and things beyond the "3 sigma" (99.73% in a normal distribution), so we invested in Jeff's team consecutively.

What's the biggest appeal of what Oasis is doing?

Tong Ji: Our universe has created many beautiful things — the rule-governed motion of planets, magnificent starscapes, human civilization with all its love and hate. If we view the universe itself as a product, it has created many stories.

"Oasis" depicts the scene from the film Ready Player One. As technology advances, we can have new experiences and stories in another world — this may be one meaning of the (meta)universe.

Image source: Oasis

Oasis's metaverse social experience consists mainly of "virtual activities," "virtual-identity-based acquaintance networks," and "diverse organizational forms." The team is building a completely new virtual economic ecosystem around these three pillars. On the Oasis platform, users can complete many real-world activities in the virtual world, including watching movies together, livestreaming, singing, playing cards, chess, board games, even working and attending classes.

Yin Sang noted that user activity on Oasis is highly frequent, and users can naturally meet like-minded friends and build relationships — for instance, finding fellow fans while watching a match, or meeting long-term partners through board games.

In terms of gameplay and user demographics, Oasis differs from other ecosystems that rely on mini-games to attract users. The many virtual activities mapped from real life have greater user stickiness. After completing social activities with friends, many Oasis users return to the platform repeatedly to explore more features.

Official statistics show that Oasis users spend over 110 minutes daily on average, with retained active users approaching 200 minutes per day — meaning large numbers of users have essentially moved their "real-world activities" into the virtual world.

Image source: Oasis

Through these high-frequency, stable virtual activities, users can quickly establish their relationship networks and communicate daily with these friends. "Fifty-seven percent of Oasis user sessions are friend-related, such as joining friends' activities or chatting and sharing with them. In the first five days, an average user establishes 19 new connections; in the first 30 days, 51 new connections," Yin Sang said.

Once certain relationships are established, friends can also form new Clubs to enrich their social circles — for example, a group of anime fans creating a film + figurine club, or poker friends building a card room, thereby establishing native acquaintance networks.

Image source: Oasis

Yin Sang believes that the metaverse Oasis is building will, like the real world, develop different divisions of labor and organizational forms. Some will be organizers responsible for building scenes; some will be creatives responsible for organizing activities; some will be active participants. These small groups are already thriving in the virtual world.

"When new users enter Oasis, 93% of their time is spent in the open world interacting with others. After being in Oasis for more than 14 days, less than 30% of their time is in the open world — over 70% is spent in various small groups. When users log on, they find different groups engaged in interesting activities. They can join different activities based on their mood or schedule, or shuttle between different activities."

Image source: Oasis

While continuously refining its core functional modules, Oasis is experiencing global growth. To date, the Oasis platform has been live for six months, covering multiple countries worldwide. Within two months of launch, Oasis topped Brazil's social app charts, and subsequently ranked among the top social apps in the US, Philippines, and other countries. Currently, Oasis adds over 2 million new users monthly, with over 1 million DAU, projected to exceed 5 million DAU by end of 2022. Notably, the VR version of Oasis is also being updated with partial features concurrently.

It is understood that once virtual activities, acquaintance networks, and organizations appear at scale on Oasis, the R&D team will begin building a platform-specific economic system. Unlike traditional internet products' "creator-sells-content" economic system, Oasis will decentralize the formulation of economic protocols, distribution of virtual property rights, and governance of social rules, empowering users.

"We believe the model of 'creators as ecosystem builders distributing and selling content to other users' is too singular and backward. The metaverse itself is not a 'content platform,' but a self-governing, healthy, long-term ecosystem. Users shouldn't be simply divided into creators and consumers — every user should be both producer and consumer, while also playing the role of governor," Yin Sang said. This also distinguishes Oasis from overseas competitors like Rec Room.

Following this funding round, Oasis will continue product iteration, expand globally for international talent, and enhance product operations and user service capabilities across different markets. The virtual economic system being built for creators may launch within the year.

5Y Capital seeks, supports, and inspires lone entrepreneurs, providing support from the spiritual to all operational aspects. We believe that if the "crazy you" in others' eyes begins to be believed in, the world will become a different place.

BEIJING · SHANGHAI · SHENZHEN · HONG KONG