Beijing

Beijing announces two-year Metaverse innovation and development plan

The Metaverse development plan requires various municipalities to track NFT technology trends and integrate the Metaverse into education and tourism.

The Beijing municipal government on Tuesday announced a two-year (2022–2024) Metaverse innovation and development plan that would require all districts to adhere to the newly released Web3 innovation plan.

The development action plan refers to the Metaverse as a new generation of information technology integration and innovation that would drive the growth of the internet toward Web3. The innovation plan focuses on promoting the development of Metaverse-related industries and helping Beijing build a benchmark city for the digital economy.

The action plan demands that various districts build technological infrastructure at a city level and promote its use in various fields, including education and tourism. The development program would see the Integration of technical means such as 3D visualization and GIS (Geographic Information System) to build a visual urban space digital platform and appropriately advance the layout of digital native intelligent infrastructure.

A Google Translate transcript of the official document read:

“Promote digital education scenarios, support in-depth cooperation between Metaverse-related technology companies and educational institutions, expand intelligent and interactive online education models, and develop industry-wide digital teaching platforms.”

The Metaverse development action plan has also instructed districts and municipalities to offer financial and human resource support to build a virtual reality. The Beijing municipal government also demanded tracking nonfungible token (NFT) technology trends and exploring regulatory sandbox programs to support innovation.

While China is known for its anti-crypto stance, the government has shown interest in the Metaverse concept since early 2021. Before Beijing, Shanghai also included the Metaverse in the five-year development plan. However, the government’s interest in nascent tech hasn’t resulted in any favorable regulations for tech companies exploring the same idea.

Related: Hong Kong university to inaugurate mixed reality classroom in Metaverse

As Cointelegraph reported in July, Tencent had to shut down one of the two NFT platforms owing to declining sales aided by the regressive monetary policies of the Chinese government. Similarly, Alibaba had to hide all mentions of its NFT marketplace just hours after its launch.

Over the past couple of months, two major cities in China have announced multi-year action plans with the Metaverse and NFTs in focus. The rising interest of the Chinese government towards leading Web3 technologies could lead to wider adoption in the country, quite similar to its central bank digital currency (CBDC), which is used by millions in the pilot phase itself.

Tencent shuts down NFT platform as gov policy makes it impossible to thrive

While NFTs are not banned in China like cryptocurrencies, the government has warned against fraud risks associated with the nascent sector.

China’s internet giant Tencent has reportedly shut down one of the two nonfungible token (NFT) platforms owing to declining sales aided by the regressive monetary policies of the Chinese government.

Tencent shut down one of its NFT platforms on July 1, while the other one is struggling to remain afloat. A report from a local daily indicates that the wind-down process for the same began in May. The tech giant transferred key executives responsible for managing the NFT platform in the last week of May and completely removed the digital collectible section from its Tencent News app by the first week of July.

The primary reason for the slow down in sales and ultimate closure of Tencent’s digital collectible platform is being blamed on flawed government policy that prohibits buyers from selling their NFTs in private transactions after purchase, which makes these NFTS not so lucrative. The lack of a secondary market kills any chance of making a profit on these digital collectibles.

NFTs gained a lot of traction in China earlier this year, with several tech giants such as Tencent and Alibaba showing interest and even launching their own digital collectible platforms. However, with the rise in popularity, it also got attention from the government, which has warned investors to be wary of frauds associated with these NFTs.

In March, several Chinese social media giants such as Weibo and WeChat started removing accounts associated with digital collectible platforms fearing a government crackdown. In June, Alibaba launched an NFT platform but soon deleted all mentions of it from the internet.

Related: Chinese court rules marketplace guilty of minting NFTs from stolen artwork

While the Chinese government is known for its anti-crypto stance where it has banned all types of cryptocurrency transactions in the country, there is no such outright ban against NFTs. However, big businesses and tech giants still dwell with caution, fearing strict actions from the Beijing government.

Wu Blockchain, a China-focused Twitter handle, told Cointelegraph that citizens still sell their NFTs in the underground secondary markets, but large tech firms such as Alibaba and Tencent can’t afford to do so.

Despite a ban on crypto trading, mining and subsequent warning against NFTs, Chinese traders have always found a way to bypass strict regulatory crackdowns. For example, after the crypto mining ban in the country last year, China’s share of Bitcoin (BTC) miners dropped to zero from 60%. However, recent data suggest that China has climbed back to the second spot again, indicating miners found a way despite strict measures taken by the government. Similarly, the number of NFT platforms in the country grew five times in four months.