Joggers in China on April 10, 2021.
The metaverse, the technology that has drawn a lot of attention this year for its potential to form the next generation of the internet, is getting serious about it.
Chinese government departments and local authorities have issued five-year development plans this year to show how they intend to implement the central government's five-year plan.
The first mention of the metaverse was contained in a release by Shanghai, according to Chinese media reports. The technology allows people to interact in a virtual world.
The metaverse is one of four frontiers that the commission of economy and information technology wants to explore in the next five years.
The document called for encouraging the application of the metaverse in areas such as public services, business offices, social entertainment, industrial manufacturing, production safety and electronic games, according to a CNBC translation of the Chinese text.
The commission plans to increase research and development of underlying technologies.
The document didn't give any goals or timelines for metaverse research.
Beijing has a five-year plan released in March that focuses on seven frontier technologies.
Facebook changed its name to Meta in October, making the metaverse a buzzword. Bill Gates said earlier this month that most virtual meetings will move to the metaverse within the next two or three years.
Beijing-based Baidu held a conference this week that it says is China's first conference in the metaverse. The opening of the metaverse app to developers was supposed to be celebrated at the event, but an executive told reporters that it will be six years before the full launch of the app.
State media has published several articles about the risk of scam on Chinese social media.
New rules on metaverse development are likely to follow after a year of bans and greater regulation on various kinds of technology, according to a professor at New York University.
He pointed out that some aspects of the metaverse's global development are related to gaming and cryptocurrencies products, which have come under greater scrutiny in China. Ma was not talking about the development plans of the commission.
CNBC's Eustance Huang contributed to the report.
