Joggers in Shanghai, China, on April 10, 2021.
Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | beautiful pictures
BEIJING – China’s largest city is getting serious about the metaverse, the technology that has caught the attention of a large number of users this year because of its potential to shape the next generation of the Internet.
State agencies and local governments have issued five-year development plans this year to show how they aim to implement the central government’s five-year plan issued in March.
As reported by Chinese media, one released by Shanghai on Thursday mentions the first metaverse. The technology expands human interaction with the virtual world of three-dimensional avatars.
The Shanghai Municipal Information Technology and Economic Commission said the metaverse is one of four frontiers to explore in its five-year plan to develop the electronic information industry.
The document calls for “encouraging the adoption of the metaverse in areas such as public services, business offices, social entertainment, industrial production, production safety, and video games,” according to a translation from CNBC’s Chinese text.
The commission said it plans to strengthen research and development on underlying technologies, including sensors, real-time interaction, and blockchain.
The document does not give a specific timeline or goal for metaverse research and development.
Beijing’s latest five-year plan announced in March is called seven “frontier” technologies that China will focus on as it wants to be self-reliant in science and technology.
Metaverse has since become a buzzword, most notably with the US social networking giant Facebook changing its name to Meta in October. Then earlier this month, Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates said he expects most virtual meetings to transition to a metaverse model within the next two or three years.
This week, based in Beijing Baidu organization where they claim to be China’s first conference in the metaverse. The event was meant to mark the opening of Baidu’s metaverse app to developers, and one executive told reporters he hopes it will. six years before full debut application.
In addition to the general rumours on Chinese social media, state media have published several articles on the topic, mainly about the risk of scams.
After a year of bans and more regulation of all types of technology, including cryptocurrencies, new rules on metaverse development are likely to follow, said Winston Ma, assistant professor of law at New York University, said Friday on CNBC”Squawk Box Asia. “
He points out how some aspects of the global development of the metaverse are related to gaming and crypto products such as non-fungible tokens, all of which are coming under closer scrutiny in China. Ma did not speak in the specific context of the Shanghai commission’s development plans.
– by CNBC Eustance Huang contributed to this report.
