China’s metaverse industry is receiving significant investment from the government as a state-supported organization was recently launched in Nanjing City with the purpose of promoting and enhancing metaverse studies throughout the country.
China’s Metaverse Plan
The main objective of the recently established group is to facilitate the expansion of the metaverse industry by conducting research and development, along with providing guidance and education for metaverse experts.
Since the previous year, the Chinese government has shown a growing fascination with the metaverse industry. In August 2022, the Beijing municipality revealed a Metaverse innovation and development strategy that spans two years. The plan requires several municipalities to keep an eye on NFT technology progress and integrate the metaverse into city administration and education.
This plan had also instructed the regional zones to offer financial and human resource aid for building a virtual world as described in the blueprint. Furthermore, in May 2023, the Henan Cultural Tourism Investment Group initiated a private fund valued at 150 million yuan ($22 million) to support metaverse projects.
Chinese Cities Going Into Metaverse
As per a recent report, Wu Zhong-ze, the former vice minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, has highlighted the importance of expanding the usage of the metaverse in different sectors such as education, commerce, healthcare, and entertainment. He has also emphasized the necessity of establishing industry standards for the metaverse.
Nanjing, accompanied by some other urban centers in China, is competing for a prominent position in the advancement of the country’s metaverse sector. The city disclosed its metaverse plan in February 2023, aiming to establish a thriving sector that yields over $19.13 billion (135 billion yuan) in yearly income by 2025. Shanghai also has set its sights on generating an annual income of $49.6 billion (350 billion yuan) from the metaverse sector by 2025.
In order to accomplish this objective, Shanghai has put forward a list of 20 preliminary applications for the metaverse, including virtual medical diagnoses and digital replicas of the city’s historical structures.
Despite a few metaverse failures in China, such as the recent collapse of the “Chinese Decentraland” project, the government’s support for leading tech companies is driving continuous expansion and financing in the field.
