Metaverse Becomes Next Frontline for Global City Supremacy
- By CDOTrends editors
- July 25, 2022
Dubai and Shanghai have announced ambitious plans to become global centers of the Metaverse economy.
In Dubai, the strategy aims for the city to become one of the world’s top 10 metaverse economies and a global hub for the metaverse community.
The Dubai strategy seeks to build on the plan to attract more than 1,000 companies in the blockchain and the metaverse, with a goal of supporting more than 40,000 virtual jobs by 2030.
Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications said the strategy was in line with the objectives of the UAE AI Strategy to enhance the country's status as one of the world's leading countries by investing in new initiatives and empowering talent to drive digital transformation and the adoption of future technologies.
VR and AR are two key enablers of the metaverse and are responsible for 6,700 jobs and contributed USD500 million to the UAE's economy last year.
In Shanghai, meanwhile, the Shanghai metropolitan government plans to grow its metaverse industry to be worth USD52 billion by the end of 2025.
The city will promote "cutting-edge technological breakthroughs," focusing on virtual reality devices, like headsets, chips, cloud computing, and 5G technology.
It is also looking to foster 10 internationally competitive "chain-owner" enterprises and found over 100 companies that "master" key metaverse technologies.
Last December, Shanghai released a metaverse development plan with a five-year goal for more research in metaverse technologies and blockchain usage.
Alongside the Shanghai and Dubai announcements in July, Thailand’s Government is also looking to exponential technologies as a driver of national development, supporting mobile operator DTAC’s launch of 5F IoT solutions at the recent Thailand 5G Summit.
DTAC’s IoT strategy focuses on solutions for three key markets: smart factories, smart logistics, and smart utilities.
The company’s business unit has introduced a 5G Private Network, which features edge computing with flexible scalability to suit all corporate requirements. It takes advantage of technologies such as Massive IoT, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and real-time data processing.
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