China's Metaverse with Chinese Characteristics Could Dominante
Don't underestimate China's ability to build, anything.
A Chinese industry body designed to develop the country’s metaverse applications has added a new batch of companies as it pushes ahead with the latest technology craze. The reality is China is always up for a race in technology since its centralization advantage means companies can work more collaboratively towards common State edict goals.
When it comes to bragging rights, the Metaverse has a lot of hype in early 2022. China it appears is up to the challenge.
China’s total addressable market for the metaverse might come out to 52 trillion yuan, or $8 trillion, according to a Morgan Stanley report. Companies such as Tencent, NetEase, Alibaba and TikTok owner ByteDance could be the frontrunners in the space. Yet there are many new players to the space as well,which the West isn’t aware of yet.
Jelly, a metaverse app that topped the download charts in Chinese app stores last week is one such name. I personally think the Beijing led Metaverse will be incredible, and while it’s unlikely to be decentralized or a utopia for advertisers, it will have many things the Western early versions won’t, real utility to consumer services. We know this from China’s unique history with Super-apps, mini-apps and a relentless striving for utility in real-life.
China’s Metaverse will Enable More Consumer Services and Utility
China’s Metaverse is likely simply to be more practical and better integrated into China’s vast legion of smart cities. Many believe the Metaverse is also the future of social networks. Others believe it will host online events, gaming communities and even business meetings.
The setting up of the metaverse committee could also suggest China is looking to regulate the technology as it develops. This could have strategic advantages and provide real boundaries in terms of what Chinese BigTech plans to do with the Metaverse to extend their products globally as they take up more marketshare in markets such as SE Asia, Africa, South America and Europe.
China could actually innovate better towards building the Metaverse as companies work together to do their part to build it for China. Think about it, this Wednesday on February 16th, 2022 we learned that the state-backed China Mobile Communications Association’s metaverse committee added another 17 companies. A total of 112 companies or individuals are in the industry body.
China Will Leverage Metaverse to Build a Neo-Surveillance Capitalism
China’s approach to regulated innovation is a kind of Neo-Surveillance Capitalism that the world cannot emulate because the world isn’t as centralized as China. Even if American BigTech was in perfect agreement they would not have as many resources as China’s approach to the Metaverse with chinese characteristics. China recognizes that if they win the Metaverse, they could be the global leader in how they on-board their technologies all around the planet.
The latest batch includes publicly listed companies such as Inly Media, which trades in Shanghai, and Beijing Topnew Info & Tech, which trades in Shenzhen. Even companies that didn’t plan to enter the Metaverse in China are now thinking of how they can grow in this speculative virtual ecosystem.
China understands how to plan for the future and win by marshalling its technology companies to work together in a collaborative way more demonstrative of collectivism and a future with Chinese characteristics. Who says politics doesn’t impact technology?
China’s Regulatory Centralization is a Business Advantage at Scale
The China Mobile Communication Association is registered with the country’s foreign affairs ministry and is backed by major technology firms such as Huawei and telecoms operator China Mobile. Its metaverse committee was set up in October and is tasked with developing standards and technology around the metaverse.
China’s socialist Metaverse will I think be incredible. Many media companies are stumbling in how they report China’s approach to the Metaverse. The reports cite the aforementioned Morgan Stanley, which says China’s market could dominate the sector. However, it will all come down to how things are regulated, and while Meta and Microsoft are already delving deeply into the metaverse, China is taking its time. China also knows how to go big!
We know that China’s approach is able to facilitate cooperation. The Metaverse is complex, it will need incredible organization and cooperation between technology companies and startups gambling their entire futures on the space. Often, China sets up such committees around technologies it wants to develop quickly and take a lead in, such as blockchain.
From my analysis I believe China will win in the Metaverse, in Space colonization and a range of other big-scale things, because their entire system is set up for it. I’ve been writing for years about how China is ahead and has significant competitive advantages in Artificial Intelligence. I don’t do this to side with China, I do it because it’s the truth.
The Western Web 3.0 is a zoo of lack of regulation and Facebook’s dream of a Metaverse is just another privacy exploiting advertising based prison. Ultimately our conception of the Metaverse will shift to more realistic avenues and China’s technology dynasty knows a thing or two about marrying consumer services with its portals. The Metaverse in this respect could be the bridge between a world of apps to a world of a brain-computer-interface BCI. This journey is likely to take several decades.
The truth is the Metaverse is likely to enable China to offer an augmented E-commerce and consumer services that make their smart cities even more advanced and integrated with digital layers of experience and convenience. The Western Metaverse is highly unlikely to have similar levels of utility. Microsoft can stack gaming IP and Facebook can pretend it’s the creator of the Metaverse, but the future of the Metaverse is likely to be a Chinese coming out party.
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