Crit Ventures USA, the U.S. unit of venture capital firm Crit Ventures, said on Thursday it made a strategic investment in Web3-based fan economy platform Meet48.

Meet48 is a decentralised fandom platform built on blockchain and AI technology. It is designed to let fans directly participate in management processes ranging from creating virtual idols to performances, broadcasts and communication. It is building a fan economy model through a new idol development structure centred on fan participation.

Users in the Web3 ecosystem can be given exclusive ownership opportunities based on digital assets such as NFT goods and voting rights issued by the idols they support. They can also be involved across the idols' growth process and earn rewards for fandom activities.

Crit Ventures explained it decided on the investment after highly rating Meet48's differentiated innovation, including its ability to build a fan-participation platform based on operational know-how accumulated through 11 years of managing idol groups in China and an active fandom ecosystem with about 24,000 pieces of cumulative user-generated content.

A Crit Ventures official said Meet48 is a platform that implements, in a Web3 environment, a structure in which fans participate throughout the growth process of idol groups to strengthen a sense of belonging within the fandom. The official said the firm will continue to expand investments in companies with growth potential in the cultural content industry.