Into the Dubai-verse

Earlier this week, the government of Dubai launched a strategy that aims to turn the city into one the world’s top 10 metaverse economies and a global hub for the metaverse community.

🇦🇪🏆 More deets… The UAE’s capital city, already home to more than 1,000 metaverse and blockchain firms, plans to 5x the number of blockchain companies located there over the next five years. And it has two other explicitly stated goals to reach by the end of the decade:

1. Add $4 billion to the city’s GDP
2. Add 40,000 new “virtual jobs” – though it’s currently unclear what those are or what they entail. (Random question: if a computer empties the trash, does that mean it’s a janitor?🤔)

🇨🇳 Elsewhere: Earlier this month, the city of Shanghai, China, laid out its own strategy to build a metaverse economy worth $52 billion by the end of 2025.

+In the know: VC and private-equity firms spent a combined $57 billion on investments in metaverse companies last year, according to data from McKinsey, while virtual real estate sales in the metaverse surpassed $500 million.