August 23, 2022 | less than a minute read

Asia and the Metaverse - a match made in heaven?

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Bryan Tan

Partner

Get in touch

Bryan Tan

Partner

Is Asia ripe for the Metaverse? In the cultural melting pot that is Asia, the lure of having one interconnected place to unite the many differences does sound like an attractive proposition to the population in Asia as well as the businesses that span across Asia. Add to that an affinity for technology and the advantages the Metaverse has over real world social interactions, there could be some truth in this piece on how Asia is well poised to play a big part in the development of the Metaverse, for which @Reed Smith recently issued its second report. The larger question is - are the laws and regulators ready for the Metaverse?

the metaverse is an $8 tn opportunity on the revenue and monetization side. A Bloomberg analysis said metaverse could be an $800 bn market by 2024 with a large chunk of share held by online game makers and gaming hardware. However, this begs the question of why Asia could be a key to metaverse development? A large chunk of the world’s population resides in Asia and almost 90% of them use smartphones with access to the internet. This presents an immense opportunity for rapid metaverse adoption in the region. Additionally, China has already taken a lead and its metaverse market is expected to hit $50 bn by mid-decade, as per Everbright Securities.