- The gap between China’s metaverse and the United States would be evident.
- President Martin Lau termed the metaverse a “real opportunity.”
According to industry experts, a decentralized infrastructure may not be a part of the game plan for China’s portion of the metaverse. The Sino Metaverse seems destined for the same fate as the internet. Many people predicted that the internet would hasten China’s democratic transition when it became widely available in the 1990s.
NewZoo’s 2021 trend report “Intro to the Metaverse,” said that the Communist nation’s disdain for decentralization wouldn’t necessarily prevent it from participating in the metaverse. Still, the experience may be radically different, comparable to how the internet appears behind the Great Firewall.
China Money Network founder and reporter Nina Xiang agreed, saying that the gap between China’s metaverse and the United States would be especially evident.
Five-fold Investment Surge in Metaverse-related Enterprises
There is little doubt that Chinese firms are interested in the metaverse’s possibilities. Metaverse-related enterprises received a total investment of almost 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in the three months leading up to the end of November 2021. According to Sino Global, a Chinese crypto venture capital firm, just 2.1 billion yuan was invested in 2020.
China’s largest search engine Baidu just launched its own “Land of Hope” metaverse app ‘XiRang’. According to Ma Jie, Baidu’s vice president for digital infrastructure, the app would not accept crypto or NFTs.
When it comes to video games, the Chinese entertainment behemoth Tencent is the world’s most valuable firm. President Martin Lau termed the metaverse a “real opportunity.” In January, the business announced plans to buy VR gear developer Black Shark. Intro to the Metaverse report states that Tencent does not require decentralized infrastructure to realize its goal for the metaverse because of its current market dominance.
