Beijing is seeking a way to put regulatory burden on the yet-to-be-developed next internet iteration.

China is set to form a working group to develop standards for the metaverse as the country sees a big future for the technology.

According to a report by Reuters, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has released a draft proposal to establish a working group for the metaverse, putting the technology among emerging tech sectors vital for China.

The MIIT claims the metaverse still “faces many challenges,” so the government should keep “healthy and orderly development of the metaverse industry through standardization and guidance.”

Although the ministry admitted that the metaverse represents “an integrated innovation combining various cutting-edge technologies,” it also pointed out the concept of virtual reality still suffers from a lack of clear definitions, allowing capitalists and companies to speculate in the market.

In August 2023, China’s telecoms operator, China Mobile, proposed developing a new system called “Digital Identity System” so that Chinese citizens could identify themselves in a virtual reality by bringing different personal information. The system is also designed to control and improve the behavior of Chinese citizens in the metaverse by keeping different ranks and scores.

In the meantime, analysts at JPMorgan suggest that Chinese tech stocks might gain in value if and when the metaverse kicks off. As per their analysis, Chinese web giants like Tencent, NetEase, and Bilibili could gain the most from the metaverse development. For the non-web companies, China Mobile, Sony, and Agora could benefit if the country embraces the technology.