Chinese technology giants are looking to invest in the metaverse, a concept that remains undefined mainly but commonly understood as virtual worlds where people will be gaming and living.
Companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and TikTok owner ByteDance could be some of the big contenders to set foot in the metaverse market, a market that could be worth 52 trillion yuan, or around $8 trillion in the future, Morgan Stanley said in a note published last month.
Unlike many western companies that are eagerly jumping into operations to build and develop virtual reality platforms that can replicate daily life, like parent company Facebook changing its name to Meta Platforms Inc and Microsoft set to acquire the gaming company Activision on a $69 billion deal, Chinese tech companies are taking a lighter approach, due to the strict regulation and censorship rules that Beijing has put out for its domestic technology firms.
So, what will a Chinese metaverse look like?
Many companies have rushed towards holding trademarks for metaverse-related activities, with Alibaba and Tencent Holding Ltd applying for around 10,000 metaverse-related trademarks in the past year, according to business tracking firm Tianyancha.
Experts say that China’s slow development of metaverse will allow Beijing to adopt and homogenize the platform’s growth in the country, especially when the interest in the platform is surging during a time of increased regulation and rigid rules that are being doled out to technology and related industries.
“Traditional Chinese internet businesses developed first and were then regulated. Industries like the metaverse will be regulated as they are built,”
said Du Zhengping, head of the state-backed China Mobile Communications Association’s metaverse industry committee, which was formed in October last year.
Analysts say that existing pieces of legislation like the new anti-monopoly laws, the personal information protection law passed, and rules to cut the amount of time minors are allowed to play online games will be used to regulate metaverse applications.
Although some say that a more diverse approach is required for the market to grow in the country, giving examples of how developments in different parts of the world focus on users expressing themselves and forming various types of communities on the platform.
“The sheer diversity of metaverse applications means developing a ‘one-fits-all’ set of policies will not be feasible for Beijing,”
said Hanyu Liu, China market analyst at Daxue Consulting.
When it comes down to the type of applications developed by Chinese tech companies, many firms have signaled towards social media, gaming and virtual reality-based apps becoming the testing ground.
Alibaba, the country’s largest online commerce company, is said to launch augmented reality glasses for virtual meetings this year.
Baidu launched a metaverse app last year called XiRang, a sort of virtual world that can hold up to 100,000 people at once, although company officials have said that the application is far from complete and may take up to six years for a full launch.
Tencent’s CEO Pony Ma said that the metaverse would provide opportunities for growth in already exiting industries like gaming and also said the company has “a lot of the technology and know-how building blocks” to develop the metaverse.
Other than tech companies, many Chinese provinces have also expressed their desire to include metaverse in their economic plans for the coming years.
Edited By- Subbuthai Padma
Published By- Satheesh Kumar
