Investors move funds out of tech and into…tech?
On the metaverse craze
Harried investors have reacted to China’s “Red New Deal” by dumping education, EV, and real estate stocks — as well those of tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent. But some tech trends are apparently too good to pass up.
- “Metaverse” companies are the latest craze. They promise virtual coworking, commercial, and social spaces that integrate blockchain, artificial intelligence, advanced computer graphics, and virtual reality tech.
- After two Chinese internet companies last week announced plans to develop metaverse products, their Shenzhen-listed stocks popped 100% and 50%.
Context: Two decades after the idea was presented in a 1992 sci-fi novel, tech companies are trying to make it real. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg in July unveiled plans to create an “embodied internet,” and ByteDance last month bought China’s biggest VR headset maker in its push to enter the field.
Takeaway: Consumer tech’s headlong rush into VR may be coming at an inopportune time. A commentary in state-owned Security Times last week denounced the technology as a “grand and illusionary concept.” Investors, it read, “will be burnt in the end.”
