China's tech behemoths are beginning to invest in the metaverse, the internet's newest buzzword. It is a term without a precise definition, but is widely understood to refer to virtual worlds in which people will play and live.
According to a post on the official website of China's Metaverse Industry Committee, the committee has onboarded 17 new enterprises, including three publicly traded companies.
The MIC announced that it had admitted publicly traded enterprises such as Inly Media Co Ltd and two Shenzhen-based firms, Beijing Topnew Info & Tech Co and Beijing Quanshi World Online Network Information Co Ltd.
According to Winston Ma, managing partner at CloudTree Ventures, the metaverse represents the "future of social networking."
"All of China's IT companies must embrace it in order to develop new ways to engage the country's youngest internet users," Ma added.
"This trend is significant at a time when their business models are maturing on smartphones and mobile internet," he noted.
In a November earnings call, Tencent Holdings Ltd Chief Executive Officer Pony Ma disclosed that the metaverse will enable existing businesses such as gaming to thrive.
Tencent is the largest gaming company in the world, with a diverse library of desktop and mobile games.
According to experts, China's metaverse efforts fall behind those of countries such as the United States and South Korea, owing to a lack of investment by domestic technology titans.
However, interest has begun to grow. Business tracking agency Tianyancha said more than 1,000 enterprises, including industry heavyweights like as Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent, have applied for about 10,000 metaverse-related trademarks in the last year.
Interestingly, the South China Morning Post reported earlier this year that the National Intellectual Property Administration had rejected a number of trademark applications including the terms yuan yuzhou or metaverse.
Meanwhile, Over the previous year, ByteDance has aggressively expanded into the gaming space.
In August, the business purchased Pico, a developer of virtual reality headsets. Additionally, ByteDance owns TikTok, a short-form video app, and its Chinese counterpart Douyin.
The Beijing-based company has established a foothold in virtual reality, social media, and gaming.
Chinese technology businesses are pursuing the metaverse following a year of rigorous regulatory scrutiny of the country's technology sector.
A new anti-monopoly legislation has been proposed for online platforms, and a landmark personal data protection law has been enacted.
Beijing has also limited the amount of time that youngsters under the age of 18 are permitted to spend playing internet games.
