China’s metaverse: pioneer analyst picks 6 stocks to emulate Facebook, Roblox and other 2021 winners
- Roblox, Meta Platforms were among biggest stock winners in 2021, deemed as ‘Year One’ of the metaverse’s development
- Ma Tianyi at Minsheng Securities picks Tencent among six stocks to benefit from the latest, hottest concept in China’ capital market
“The metaverse is a tool to improve people’s daily life and work and boost corporate efficiency,” Ma said in an interview this month with a local media outlet, The Paper, which credited him as a pioneer analyst in the field. “Our yearning for [virtual] immersion, social networking and digital assets is also part of what defines the metaverse. For sure, it will be with us today, and for generations.”
At stake is a market that will grow at a 13 per cent annual compound rate to almost US$800 billion by 2024, according to an estimate by Bloomberg Intelligence based on data from Newzoo, IDC and other sources. The winners will be those who can build virtual worlds to capitalise on the convergence of online games, social networking and AR and virtual reality.
As the metaverse drew mainstream believers, stocks that latched onto the theme prospered in 2021. Meta, the name of Facebook since late October, rallied 126 per cent over three years, while Roblox surged 54 per cent since its New York listing in March. Unlisted Epic Games raised US$1 billion from investors in April, giving it a US$28.7 billion valuation.
The metaverse, coined by science-fiction author Neal Stephenson in 1992 in his book Snow Crash, is often referred to as a shared, immersive three-dimensional virtual space. It gained popularity in Steven Spielberg’s 2018 blockbuster Ready Player One, which depicts a digital world where users can play, trade or simply hang out.