Who's Buying NFTs in the Metaverse and Why? Identifying Influencing Factors and Segmenting Potential Buyers using Principal Component Analysis and K-means Clustering
(A2023-114091)

AUTHORS

Michael Hollaus, University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt, Campus Wieselburg; Markus Dráb, University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt, Campus Wieselburg

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the topic of metaverse has become increasingly present both in the broader society as well as in academia. Although there are a number of studies on the metaverse, there has been little attempt to understand why people buy NFTs in the metaverse. Therefore, this study aims firstly to find out the reasons why people buy NFTs in the metaverse, and secondly to identify possible buyer groups based on these factors. Our results show that there are six main factors that influence the purchase decision of NFTs in the metaverse, namely blockchain, design, popularity, community, utility, and rarity. Based on these factors, k-means clustering is used to form potential buyer groups. The resulting five clusters, namely Interested Stars, Design Lovers, Disregarders, Popularity Seekers, and Pragmatists, indicate a very diverse potential buyer group where the various factors vary in importance with respect to the decision-making process.