Cadabra by Canon: To Be or Not to Be?

Early January brought Twitter feeds alive with news that Canon planned to step into the NFT market. The photographic giant was reported to have applied for a trademark registration for a new entity. Interestingly, the chosen name "Cadabra" bears no particular significance and is a concocted term. A fun fact is that Amazon carried the name Cadabra, Inc. during its initial two years.

This isn't Canon's inaugural journey into the world of NFT technologies. Earlier, in partnership with Immutable Image, they had launched the Canon Legends collection on Solana. In early 2023, the company decided to expand upon this experience.

Following this, Canon seemingly took a mysterious four-month hiatus. It wasn't until mid-April that they finally announced the unveiling of their own NFT marketplace, Cadabra.

Canon's announcement sparked an array of responses from Cadabra's potential audience. Digital Camera World, a professional publication, viewed Canon's NFT initiative with noticeable skepticism. Experts commented that Canon's late entrance into the NFT arena was rather surprising, particularly with the advent of AI image generators, which, according to photographers, are the current rulers of the digital space.

Nonetheless, Canon received many flattering comments under its tweet. "So excited about this! I've been a Canon user for 13 years, and it's amazing to see my favorite brand getting involved in NFT. I filled out the form. How will you be curating artists for your marketplace?" - wrote user @E_sanqueira.

Ironically, despite the questions and curiosity, the company has yet to provide further information about the project. What is known so far is that the marketplace will be based on Ethereum and is expected to be operational by the end of 2023. It will host both primary and secondary markets for NFT photographs. As for what kind of images will be showcased, or the criteria for selecting NFT authors? Canon remains tight-lipped. Cadabra's website simply offers a sign-up for newsletters and a promise of more information to come.

A month following the announcement of the new marketplace, a much-anticipated email finally landed in a Gagarin News journalist's inbox.

“Thank you for signing up to learn more about Cadabra, a curated photography marketplace. We would like to invite you to take a brief survey regarding your interest in the platform. The information you provide on the survey will be used for internal purposes," the sender, Canon U.S.A. Research, conveyed.

Upon completing the survey, it became clear that five months post the trademark registration and a month after Cadabra's announcement, the researchers were seeking to ascertain the audience for this new marketplace.

Hold on! Isn't market research typically conducted prior to a project launch? It seems we're dealing with a unique approach from Canon. By making modest investments: a trademark registration, a single-page website, and a social media post, Canon managed to gather a potential user base for its NFT venture. Now, it's possible the company is considering whether it's worth investing in Cadabra, or if the "buzz" has faded.

On our end, albeit slightly skeptical, we optimistically responded to all of the marketer's questions. After all, we're genuinely excited to see what Canon's NFT marketplace will look like.