China’s World Metaverse Conference kicks off in Beijing in display of national ambition but few foreign presenters

China executives for tech giants like Nvidia, Epic Games and Unity showed up to promote their vision of the metaverse and standardisation

Only two international speakers presented at the event, including Matthew Ball, known for his essays on the metaverse

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A visitor at the World Metaverse Conference in Beijing plays a racing game in a Cooler Master gaming cabin on August 26, 2022. Photo: Coco Feng

Published: 11:00pm, 26 Aug 2022Updated: 12:56am, 27 Aug 2022

China’s second large metaverse conference this month kicked off on Friday in Beijing, where government officials and Chinese technology executives touted their ideas for developing the futuristic vision of the internet.

The three-day World Metaverse Conference (WMC), which is supported by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, serves as a display of China’s progress in applying the metaverse concept to video gaming, virtual reality (VR) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Despite the conference name, international participation was severely limited due in part to strict Covid-19 controls. Only two foreign speakers offered pre-recorded talks for the conference, including venture capitalist Matthew Ball, who has become known for his series of essays on the metaverse.

The Chinese Academy of Press and Publication and Beijing Daxing Economic Development Zone Management Committee announce a new lab for metaverse-related publications at the World Metaverse Conference on August 26, 2022. Photo: Handout

Li Tao, an official from the Beijing bureau backing the WMC, said China’s metaverse industry must improve to become “independent and controllable”, a term associated with Beijing’s effort to reduce dependence on foreign technologies like semiconductors amid worsening tensions in the US-China tech war.

The metaverse is “the new blue ocean”, he said, referring to an unexplored market with huge potential and little competition.

Several notable foreign tech companies were represented at the conference, but only by their Chinese executives. Graphics processing unit maker Nvidia, game engine developer Unity and Fortnite creator Epic Games all had executives at the event.

Li Haonan, Nvidia’s director of visual solutions technology in China, said that the metaverse is still “at a stage where everybody is competing with their imaginations”, but he believes it will become the next-generation internet within 20 years.

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