In an interview with Bloomberg, Pearson plc CEO Andy Bird discusses the benefits of moving digital textbook sales to blockchain and Non-Fungible Token (NFT) technologies as a mechanism to capture portions of secondhand sales:
"In the analogue world, a Pearson textbook was resold up to seven times, and we would only participate in the first sale," he told reporters following the London-based company's interim results on Monday, talking about technological opportunities for the company.
"The move to digital helps diminish the secondary market, and technology like blockchain and NFTs allows us to participate in every sale of that particular item as it goes through its life," by tracking the material's unique identifier on the ledger from "owner A to owner B to owner C," said Bird, a former Disney executive.
Andy Bird also mentioned that other technologies are also under consideration as well:
"We have a whole team working on the implications of the metaverse and what that could mean for us,"
