The $800 billion ‘virtual universe’ is attracting the attention of the whole of China: The Government established a 112-member Committee, the big guys from Alibaba, Tencent poured money without regret.

Metaverse (virtual universe) is a concept that has been mentioned a lot around the world in recent years. According to Bloomberg, in 2020, the market value of the metaverse has reached nearly 500 billion USD and could increase to 800 billion USD by 2024.

Right now, a number of Western tech giants, including Microsoft and Facebook’s parent company Meta, have bet billions of dollars on creating the technologies that underpin the metaverse. They all see this as the next evolution of the Internet.

To start the plan to penetrate the metaverse market, Facebook changed the name of the parent company to Meta (Photo: Internet).

Because of the great potential of the metaverse, China certainly does not want to miss the opportunity to become one of the leading countries in this field.

According to the Financial Times, many local governments in China and state-backed organizations are actively pumping money into companies that develop the metaverse as China competes to become the global hub of the world. this new digital wave.

Last week, the Metaverse Committee of the China Communications and Mobile Association admitted 17 new members who are Chinese high-tech companies to “promote the healthy, orderly and sustainable development of China”. stability of the Metaverse”. Thus, this committee has a total of 112 members.

The Metaverse Committee was set up last October by state-owned telecommunications company China Mobile, for member companies to discuss new rules, policies and projects. The leader of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China once emphasized that this is not a temporary trend but an important trend that needs to be invested in the long term.

China has established such committees to promote development and ensure the country’s leadership in technology fields that are forecast to have strong growth potential, CNBC reported. Previously, China had set up a similar committee for the blockchain sector.

Last November, Alibaba launched the “Metaverse Art Show” to boost sales during the “November 11 Singles Day” shopping event. Previously, in August, ByteDance invested 9 billion yuan to acquire virtual reality hardware maker Pico. Meanwhile, giant Tencent even started to enter this field since 2019 in a $ 45.3 billion cooperation agreement with Roblox.

Not long ago, investment bank Morgan Stanley predicted the metaverse could grow into an $8 billion industry in China alone. An expert said that although China is behind leading countries in the metaverse field like the US, China is making strong moves to promote its development.

Analyst Chenyu Cui said: ” The concept of the metaverse is still not well defined and it is so broad that any company can get involved in it, even if they really have nothing to do with it. Ai. also want to be a part of this new technological breakthrough. Metaverse helps startups attract investment and gives those already listed on the stock exchange a chance to increase their share price .”

“Even though the metaverse is a hot trend right now, not every company will last long. It depends on what they actually offer,” added Cui.

Illustration: Internet.

In recent months, several major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, have incorporated the metaverse into their development plans while encouraging the growth of companies in the field. this area.

Last month, a district in Beijing set up a fund to financially support startups and metaverse research. Meanwhile, the Shanghai city government recently opened a virtual hall, which it plans to turn into an online portal for companies to interact with.

Thanks to a lot of investment efforts and the interest of the public, especially young people, more and more technology companies in China have started to enter the metaverse market. This helps create a new amount of work.

The CEO of a technology startup in Beijing said his company has focused on meeting the needs of customers who want immersive experiences in the virtual world. According to him, half of the customers are young people between the ages of 18 and 27.

According to one analyst, the development of a metaverse can be divided into 2 phases. The first stage is a virtual world that simulates real life, including social activities and entertainment with 3D immersive experiences. With the help of a virtual avatar, everyday life can be extended into the parallel online world, creating a realistic experience for the user. During this period, the online gaming segment accounted for half of the market share. The other half goes to social media and other forms of entertainment like music.

After that, the metaverse will move on to the next phase where the simulation world expands further across different industries. New technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality will change the way people work, shop, and enjoy all other services. The line between the real and virtual worlds begins to blur during this period.

Source: FT, DI