The 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services opens today in Beijing. We have a series of stories lined up on China's latest developments in the sector. In this episode, our reporter Dai Kaiyi talks to some of the industry's insiders on what lies ahead for the metaverse, which business leaders call the next big technology platform.
Mark Zuckerberg: "Our company is now meta."
Satya Nadella: "Let's talk about the Metaverse."
News Anchor1: "Wait a sec now, what is the metaverse?"
News Anchor2: "Now what is the metaverse?"
So you've probably heard a lot lately about the metaverse, but maybe you are not quite sure what it is.
DAI KAIYI Beijing "This is a question probably everybody's been asking: What is Metaverse?"
JIN PENG Co-founder and COO, Nreal "It is the imagination that the future will be a combination or an integration of multiple digital universes if you will. It is the imagination of how people are to be connected, how Information is to be transmitted."
It's also being called "Web 3," and it's supposed to be the next dimension of the internet.
While there are multiple versions of metaverse, most agree that it can take place, well, just about anywhere. Be it a shopping mall, a gym, and even in outer space.
This might sound like something out of the future, but to the tech world, that future is not far off.
DAI KAIYI Beijing "There's lots of hype surrounding the metaverse, and the concept is now everywhere. Many businesses across the globe are going all in, trying to make this vision into reality."
There's research that shows the metaverse economy could be worth 8-13 trillion dollars in 2030, as companies have placed their bets on the metaverse's promise.
JIN PENG Co-founder and COO, Nreal "This is it for us. That's our whole game, right? So we are betting big in that sense. I think where we are right now, it's very similar to where personal computer was 40 years ago, or where the mobile internet was 15 years ago."
So where does China's market players currently stand? I asked a team in Tsinghua University that focuses on the Metaverse's research.
YU MENGLONG Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Journalism and Communication Tsinghua University "China is a chaser because the U.S. tech giants such as Microsoft, Apple, Meta, Google, and Amazon, are actually far more mature than China's equivalents in terms of the layout and technology development of the Metaverse. But it's also a game-changer as its market demand is massive, and its short video industry and content ecology are among the richest."
As big debate is still raging about what the metaverse will ultimately be. But one thing is clear – the metaverse is here to stay.
YU MENGLONG Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Journalism and Communication Tsinghua University "In fact, human imagination has always been driving technological innovations. So there's this idea that we should not make the metaverse a concept that is too confined, which could limit people's Imagination towards it and its room for potential."
JIN PENG Co-founder and COO, Nreal "In terms of the ability for the digital layer of Information to add value to your everyday life. Sky's the limit. Right? So I really think that Metaverse is going to be a everyday phenomenon that's going to exist in everybody's everyday life."
A life that they say is going to stick around forever.
Editor: Guo Lili
