While no one knows what the metaverse will look like for sure, that hasn’t stopped companies around the world from starting to try and develop their own version of it since Meta announced its plans for it. This now includes Chinese firms, which will be highly regulated.

The state-backed Chinese Mobile Communications Association’s (CMCA) metaverse committee announced Wednesday that it was adding 17 companies, bringing the total to 112 that will be a part of the committee to create a metaverse, CNBC reports.

Multiple Chinese companies are working on their own metaverses, including Baidu, which unveiled a virtual reality app "XiRang" though the platform is in its infancy and it could take years for it to launch at full capacity.

Bytdance, the creator of TikTok, is investing in several companies hoping to achieve metaverse capabilities. Tencent, a video game company, is also working on its own metaverse. NetEase and Alibaba are also working on virtual reality and metaverse technologies.

The CMCA's committee was set up in October 2021 and began developing standards and technology necessary to start its own metaverse. It is backed by major Chinese tech firms such as Huawei and China Mobile and registered with the country's foreign affairs ministry.

While the U.S. government has not formed a clear strategy for regulating metaverse activity, the Chinese government is getting ahead by regulating the metaverse as it develops. Analysts told CNBC that the metaverse in China will likely not feature cryptocurrencies. The Chinese government has taken a stance against crypto.

“Traditional Chinese internet businesses developed first and were then regulated. Industries like the metaverse will be regulated as they are built,” the head of CMCA's metaverse industry committee, Du Zhengping, told Reuters.

Gou Wenjun, head of the Anti-Money Laundering unit at China's central bank, said technologies like the metaverse need regulation to prevent them from becoming a haven for illegal activity.

RELATED STORIES
China