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The Chinese are pouring money into the metaverse.

In the first week of December, Beijing Language and Culture University released its list of the top 10 online buzzwords for 2021, and the website Yaowen Jiaozi released its own top 10 buzzwords for the year. The Yaowen Jiaozi list included the term "metaverse," which was the only non-Chinese term on the list. This shows that the Chinese are making significant investments in the metaverse.

According to Tianyancha, a business data site, China has registered over 7,000 trademarks related to the metaverse. A-level gamers have now poured money into the metaverse, causing a gold rush and driving up metaverse concept stock prices.

Hillhouse Capital, Zhen Fund, Wuyuan Capital, Evergreen, Morningside, and Xinghan Capital have all constructed their metaverse roadmaps, which include portfolio investments ranging from virtual social networks and virtual idols to game firms and VR/AR initiatives in the primary market. Luo Yonghao, a Chinese entrepreneur and internet celebrity, has claimed that his next business venture will be in the metaverse.

As of December 9, the number of trademark applications with "metaverse" in the name had surpassed 7,000, according to Tianyancha. Over 1,000 businesses have metaverse-related trademarks. It's also worth noting that in 2021, 99 percent of metaverse trademarks were filed, with most them taking place in the last two months. Before September 22nd, only 130 companies had applied; by October 22nd, the number had risen to nearly 400.

Beijing came in first with 810 registered metaverse-related trademarks, followed by Guangzhou with 637, Shenzhen with 519, and Shanghai with 419.

Between September and November 2021, 26 domestic metaverse-related investments totaling over 10 million yuan and 35 offshore metaverse-related investments totaling over 10 billion yuan were made.

Last year, China's VR/AR industry received 2.1 billion yuan in investment. To put it another way, the sum of money invested in the metaverse in the last three months exceeds the sum of money invested in AR/VR for the entire year.

The world's most popular social media platform, Facebook, has renamed itself Meta. Microsoft released Mesh for Teams, which allows groups to create their own metaverses; Google relies on the metaverse as well, with its redesigned Google Labs. Adidas and Nike are chasing metaverse buzz: Adidas bought a Bored Ape NFT and is planning a metaverse collaboration with Yuga Labs, while Nike bought RTFKT, an NFT sneaker studio.

Sequoia Capital signaled a shift in focus by changing its Twitter bio to "We help the daring build legendary DAOs from idea to token airdrops," which is full of crypto jargon.

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