BEIJING – China’s largest city is already in the spotlight over metaverse, a technology that has attracted the attention of many people this year because of its ability to build the next generation of internet.
The metaverse has become a buzzword in the last few months as businesses, investors and developers predict it could form the next generation of the internet.
Chinese media reports said the Shanghai city document marked the first time a local government mentioned the metaverse in its plans for implementing Beijing’s five-year plan released in March.
Chinese government departments and local authorities have released five-year development plans this year to show how they intend to implement the five-year central government plan released in March.
One released by Shanghai on Thursday contained the first metaverse, according to Chinese media reports. Technology expands human interaction into the physical world of three-dimensional avatars.
Metaverse is one of four areas to consider, says the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology in its five-year plan to develop the electronic information industry.
The document sought to “promote the use of metaverse in areas such as public services, business offices, public entertainment, industrial production, production safety and electronic games,” according to CNBC’s version of the Chinese text.
The commission said it plans to expand research and development of basic technologies, including sensors, real-time interaction and blockchain.
The document did not set a specific timeline or objectives for research and metaverse development.
Beijing’s latest five-year plan released in March has called for seven “border” technologies that China will focus on as it seeks scientific and technological independence.
Since then the metaverse has become a hot topic, especially when the American social networking site Facebook changed its name to Meta in October. Then earlier this month, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said he expects more visible meetings to go beyond the metaverse within the next two to three years.
This week, Beijing-based Baidu hosted what they say is China’s first conference in the tournament. The event was intended to mark the launch of Baidu’s Metaverse app for developers, and the official told reporters he expected it to take up to six years before the full launch of the app.
In addition to the metaverse buzz on Chinese social media, state media have published a number of articles on the subject, particularly on the dangers of scams.
After a year of bans and massive controls of various technologies, including secret money, new metaverse development rules are likely to follow, Winston Ma, a law professor at New York University, said Friday at CNBC “Squawk Box Asia.”
He pointed out how some aspects of global metaverse development are related to games and cryptocurrency products such as unsecured tokens, all of which have been extensively studied in China. Ma was not commenting on the specific nature of the Shanghai commission’s development plans.