The Metaverse enters China
The authorities have been working with tech firms to study how the metaverse can be applied to tourism, said Fang Shizhong, the director of the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism, in an interview on Tuesday. China’s second-most populated city will introduce a three-year plan to promote the metaverse in the tourism industry.
Shanghai expects its metaverse industry to grow to US$52 billion before 2025. Moreover, China will also set up a fund of US$1.4 billion to invest in the metaverse. Shanghai’s Municipal Government published a draft of its “14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Shanghai’s Digital Economy.” In the document, blockchain technology, NFTs, the metaverse, and Web3 are lumped in with other “key technologies”.For instance, such as AI, cloud computing, and big data that have been getting massive support from the government.
How will the Metaverse be implemented
Plans for the metaverse tourism will see Shanghai accelerate the research and deployment of virtual reality platforms. The city emphasizes the potential of this to facilitate new forms of digital entertainment consumption. The Web3 applications of blockchain technology will complement hardware upgrades. For example, the deployment of 6G, IPv6, WiFi6, and quantum communication that Shanghai also plans to explore.
The metaverse will probably look a tad different than what you imagine it to be. A tiny bit less ridiculous, a good amount of abundance and a whole lot more… real. And yes, you will be wearing a headset, acting as an “entry point.” As with any other paradigm-shifting new addition to our day-to-day lives, it is difficult to properly imagine and visualize what it will look like in the near five-year future, let alone how it will develop and grow in a few decades.
Given the exponential growth trajectory of all metaverse-related tech (blockchain, VR/AR, computers), we are most likely going to get a version of Google Glass or Snapchat Spectacles, but on steroids — small, practical and filled with technology we can’t quite picture yet, at least not completely. This headset will then act as your entry or login into the different sets of metaverses, the way how your house keys enable you to, well, enter your house.
The future of the metaverse
Now, this is where the real “metaverse” will spring up — right in the middle of the physical and the digital, acting as a bridge between the worlds and combining the best of each one. As our homes become de-facto offices and technology gets better, we will be able to tailor our surroundings down to each subtle detail, eventually creating an environment that inspires.