Dusseldorf In the 2009 science fiction film “Avatar”, the landscape was inspired by the picturesque mountain pillars of the Chinese Zhangjiajie National Park. Now the local authorities in the southwestern province want to transform the connection into even more sustainability and have founded a “Metaverse Research and Development Center”. Those responsible have the goal of building a virtual tourist community or selling virtual souvenirs.
So China is in metaverse fever. In November, the major telecommunications companies China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom joined forces with tech companies to set up the Metaverse Industry Committee. It is intended to strengthen the infrastructure development of a shared virtual 3D space and to network innovations in this area.
After Facebook, Forgiveness Meta, Microsoft and Epic Games have committed themselves to the metaverse concept with publicity, the large Chinese tech corporations are one after the other emphasizing how much they also believe in the concept – and are investing in it.
The largest game provider Tencent, for example, which also owns almost half of Epic, has partnered with the US online gaming platform Roblox and recently joined Wave. This is a US company that organizes virtual concerts.
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Competitor Netease has invested in IMVU, a social networking company, and the Metaverse, among others. Netease is technologically preparing to be the fastest company as soon as the Metaverse really comes along, said founder (William) Ding Lei.
Search engine operator Baidu calls its recently launched virtual social platform Xirang “Metaverse App” and has applied for the property rights to the term “Metaapp”. And Tiktok mother Bytedance has bought the start-up for virtual worlds Pico, among other things.
Speculative object metaverse: stock exchange operators question announcements
On the stock exchange, the Metaverse is currently considered a profit maker by speculative investors. After game producer ZQ Game announced that it would develop a game in which users could be winery owners in the Metaverse, the share price quadrupled within a few weeks. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange was suspicious. She asked ZQ Game to explain in detail what exactly the plans included.
Other companies are also deliberately positioning themselves as metaverse concept companies. For example, the entertainment company Zhejiang Jinke Tom Culture Industry and the Internet company Hubei Century Network Technology have also received letters from the stock exchange operator asking them to explain what exactly they are doing in terms of Metaverse.
The state media, meanwhile, warn that the concept of the Metaverse is still young and immature, and that the risk of price losses for hyped stocks is high. But of course China has to play a leading role in future technology.
In China, what could emerge in the Metaverse in the coming years is heavily dependent on what regulators allow in a country where the internet, computer games and movies are censored.
Tencent President Martin Lau has the impression that the leadership in Beijing is not “fundamentally averse” to the Metaverse. But, in his opinion, the regulations should look quite different from those in other parts of the world.
More: Aktienlupe: US tech giants are reinventing the Internet with Metaverse – this is how investors position themselves cleverly