Chinese companies are actively participating in a Metaverse brand race

December 21, 2021 - Around 2 mins mins to read

Despite warnings from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) about Metaverse and NFT in November, tech giants like Tencent and Huawei and more than a thousand other trademark applications related to Metaverse have filed.

During a summit meeting in November, Gou Wenjun, director of the PBOC’s Anti-Money Laundering and Analysis Center (AML), warned of the dangers of digital assets. Since virtual assets have no physical basis, he says they can be used for illegal financial activities such as “illegal fundraising, pyramid schemes and fraud”.

Ignoring the warnings from the PBOC, however, Chinese companies have attempted to register Metaverse-related brands such as “Metaverse Satellite – Metaverse Satellite” and “Metaverse Exhibition – Metaverse Exhibition”. Currently, more than 1,360 Chinese companies filed 8,534 trademark applications related to Metaverse as of Sunday (December 18).

Most of the companies that have filed trademark registrations related to Metaverse are technology companies, including big players like Huawei and Hisense. Huawei has registered “Meta OS” while Hisense has registered a number of brands in various fields such as social services, advertising and science. Games and technology giant Tencent also joined after filing nearly a hundred trademark applications related to Metaverse, including “QQ Metaverse”, “QQ Music Metaverse” and “Kings Metaverse”.

Except for the warning from the PBOC. On December 9, the Chinese Communist Party’s official People’s Daily warned digital asset buyers that buying and selling assets in the Metaverse is a high risk.

This number of trademark registrations does not surprise many as the demand for NFTs grows. According to sales tracker NFT Crypto Slam, NFT sales were $ 580.7 million in the last seven days alone and are expected to reach $ 17.7 billion in 2021.