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China Metaverse News

China&#8217;s province of Zhejiang announced the formation of a metaverse association to enhance innovation and growth in this sector.



Province&#8217;s officials said the launch of the metaverse association comes within a framework of luring investments of leading metaverse development and Web3 companies to the province. Already, Chinese companies such as NetEase and a subsidiary of China Mobile joined the association, which is called the Zhejiang Metaverse Industry Association.



The metaverse association, which is based in the province’s capital of Hangzhou, started operations with 91 local firms as the officials pointed out that they look forward to growing the number of companies by 200 before the end of 2025. It will be supervised by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology and chaired by Chinese Academy of Engineering Professor Tan Jiangrong.



Tan said that the association eyes launching seven committees, four centers, and an expert think tank to accelerate the adoption of virtual worlds in the province. The seven committees will explore ways of deploying the metaverse in the sectors of education, medicine, consumption, community, e-commerce, economy, and cultural tourism.



The association also plans to help the government in formulating metaverse industry development plans in cooperation with the regulators for their enforcement.



It is noticeable that there is a heated race among <a href="https://upyo.com/en/news/tags/china-metaverse" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chinese provinces in the metaverse </a>arena as each province attempts to outline outstanding metaverse strategies or initiatives. For an example, Shanghai aims to generate $6.5 billion (50 billion yuan) annually from culture and tourism metaverse projects by 2025.



The metaverse industry in China is flourishing as it is expected to hike by about 40% this year, according to a new report. According to a recent report by Research and Market, the world’s largest market research store, on the Chinese metaverse market and its future, the metaverse industry in China is predicted to increase by 39.5% on an annual basis to reach $1,06,102.8 million in 2023.

China’s Zhejiang Province

Metaverse

China’s Zhejiang Sets Up Metaverse Association To Promote Growth

NFKings, a pioneering web3 technology company, collaborated with the largest variety program IP creator and operator in China, Star CM Holdings, to launch an entertaining immersive experience in the <a href="https://upyo.com/en/news/metaverse" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">metaverse</a>.&nbsp;



&#8220;Sing!Meta&#8221; is a Web3 entertainment metaverse experience that welcomes more than 100 million viewers and fans, according to the Media OutReach website. Sing!Meta is a virtual simulation of Sing!China, which is a very popular reality TV show in mainland China that aims to discover exceptionally talented musicians through blind auditions and team competitions.&nbsp;



The metaverse version of Sing!China will showcase a more engaging and two-way interactive experience for fans and viewers as they will find their way to participate in the TV show in the metaverse. In addition, all the items in the metaverse will be uploaded on the blockchain and will turn into digital assets, which the users can use.&nbsp;



In this regard, Star CM&#8217;s Chief Executive Officer Mr. Tian Ming said: &#8220;Web3 and the Metaverse are subverting the existing mode of the entertainment industry, accelerating the combination of traditional entertainment and technology in various aspects. We are thrilled to introduce millions of Sing!China viewers and fans to Sing!Meta, and we look forward to the unique experience that the web3 Metaverse of Sing!China can offer to this industry.&#8221;



Meanwhile, Lim expressed his excitement about cooperating with Star CM and using IPs with the technologies of metaverse and blockchain to bring a different virtual interactive experience to Sing!China&#8217;s fans. Sing!Meta will be available to be downloaded worldwide.&nbsp;



It is worth mentioning that China is very open to utilizing Web3-related technologies as Beijing and other municipalities launch metaverse-based initiatives to make the virtual worlds flourish on its land in different sectors.&nbsp;



Earlier, a new report found that the metaverse industry in China is flourishing as it is expected to hike by about 40% this year.



According to a recent report by Research and Market, the world’s largest market research store, on the <a href="https://upyo.com/en/news/tags/china-metaverse">Chinese metaverse market</a> and its future, the metaverse industry in China is predicted to increase by 39.5% on an annual basis to reach $1,06,102.8 million in 2023, a matter which shows the significant growth of the metaverse in the Asian country.

Sing!Meta

Web3

China’s Sing!China To Be Launched in Metaverse

China&#8217;s largest videogame company Tencent is reportedly in talks with Meta to sell the Quest 2 VR headsets in China, according to the Wall Street Journal.&nbsp;



The newspaper said if the talks were successful and a deal reached, Meta will have access to a massive new market that is so enthusiastic towards emerging technologies and achieve booming sales.&nbsp;



The discussions are still in the first phases and kinda complicated given that Facebook is banned in China since 2009, in addition, any deal with a Chinese company will raise questions given that Meta is under the sights of government regulators. Therefore the companies do not only need to overcome the past, but they should tackle how they would handle the data.&nbsp;



Meta Platforms’ Reality Labs virtual reality unit reported the biggest loss in a quarter, hitting $$4.28 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to $3.304 billion in the same quarter a year ago.



The company’s metaverse division posted collective losses worth $13.72 billion throughout the last year,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/01/meta-lost-13point7-billion-on-reality-labs-in-2022-after-metaverse-pivot.html" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to CNBC</a>. Reality Labs’s losses were more than six times its revenues in 2022 as its overall revenues recorded $2.16 billion ($727 million in the fourth quarter), compared to $2.27 billion in 2021.



These revenues are thought to be achieved due to increasing the price of its Oculus Quest 2 headsets by $100 to $400 in August 2022 for inflationary pressures, in addition to the launch of the Meta Quest Pro, an enterprise high-end version of its headset, for $1,500.



Reality Labs is expected to continue recording losses in 2023, as they could be bigger in the coming quarters.

Quest 2 VR headset

Tencent in Talks with Meta To Sell VR Headsets in China

A report by South Korea&#8217;s Korean Intellectual Property Office revealed that China is number 2 globally in terms of metaverse-related patents, following the United States, China Daily Hong Kong reported.



As many as 14,291 metaverse-related patents were filed in China from 2011 to 2022, accounting for 30% of the global metaverse-related patents, compared to the US, which recorded 17,293 applications, accounting for 36% of the global patents. While South Korea came in third place with 7,808 applications (16% of the total).



From 2016 to 2020, about 43,700 metaverse-related patents emerged from the US, Europe, China, Japan, and South Korea, which increased about threefold over those filed in the previous five years.



Another report by market consultancy Preqin uncovered that China saw VR and AR deals more than the US from 2021 to November 2022.



In this regard, He Chao, the secretary-general of the metaverse industry committee at the China Mobile Communications Association, an industry organization based in Beijing said: &#8220;The next decade will be a golden era for the development of the metaverse in China, but the country values the role of the metaverse in upgrading the real economy.&#8221;



Moreover, in November, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced it plans to increase the market size of the VR industry in the country beyond 350 billion yuan ($50.4 billion) by 2026.



According to Sun Jiashan, a researcher at the Chinese National Academy of Arts, China needs to remain on high alert against financial speculators trying to cash in on the metaverse craze, not least because such actions could disrupt the efficient allocation of resources, hinder the cultivation of talent and harm industries.

Metaverse in China

China 2nd Globally in Terms of Metaverse Patents

Shanghai, China, intends to bring 20 urban sports to the metaverse with the aim to provide smarter public services for its residents.



The Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization announced a pilot program to turn 20 different urban spots into major metaverse application scenarios that will provide digital tech in different ways. The metaverse venues will cover various sectors, including business, entertainment, education, operations, and branding.



Through these locations, the city aims to provide more intelligent services in the virtual world. Hospitals are equipped with a metaverse diagnostic system that will allow doctors to examine patients using 3D scanning equipment like the Shanghai Eye and ENT Hospital.



Also, tourist landmarks were added to the metaverse, including the Oriental Pearl Tower where visitors can fly over the commercial area of Shanghai via a VR-enabled application.



Guo Yifeng, the general manager of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Radio &amp; TV Tower Co. <a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202301/1283918.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told the Global Times:</a> &#8220;We hope these new [metaverse] projects can enrich people&#8217;s visiting experience and make our online marketing more accessible and interesting.&#8221;



Yifeng expected that the metaverse would expand to include more activities like education in the coming years.



The Shanghai commission also added an online market where customers can buy digital products using the digital yuan, China’s CBDC.



Shanghai is not the first Asian city to offer public services in the metaverse. Days ago, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced the launch of its public metaverse platform, named “Metaverse Seoul,” the platform allows users to file public documents, tour tourist destinations in Seoul, ask for advice for starting a business and seek help with taxes in addition to playing games.



The government pointed out that the second and third phases will be launched in the coming three years, which are expected to include services in Chinese and Japanese.

China Metaverse News

Latest China Metaverse News