Meta announced a series of new initiatives to support the development of the metaverse in Hong Kong. Working with a wide range of partners including local café chains, creators, educators, arts and culture groups, and non-profit organizations, Meta will enable people across Hong Kong to experience the metaverse first-hand and better understand its potential in many aspects over the next few months.
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Meta’s metaverse plan for Hong Kong includes Virtual Reality (VR) experiences and exhibitions at local cafés and public spaces; a short film showcase and a new award competition to support the convergence of film, visual media and technology; and Augmented Reality (AR) training workshops for educators and secondary school students. Testing of digital collectibles will also begin with Hong Kong creators who will be able to share their own non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Instagram.
“Hong Kong plays a key role in the technology ecosystem of the Asia-Pacific region, and Meta remains committed to driving economic and technological development in this market. We’re aware that people want to know how the metaverse will work, and with AR and VR – the key technologies that underpin the metaverse – on the cusp of becoming ubiquitous, more and more young people want to learn these in-demand skills. Building for the metaverse is a collective effort that involves multiple stakeholders of the society, which is why we are thrilled to collaborate with a broad range of partners from Hong Kong to bring the metaverse experience to the community, and promote AR and VR innovations in the arts and cultural, and education sectors,” said George Chen, Managing Director of Public Policy for Greater China, Mongolia, and Central Asia at Meta.
Pop-up metaverse experiences for the community
The deeper, more immersive experiences enabled by the metaverse are unlocking new opportunities, helping people engage and create shared experiences – even when people can’t be together physically. Meta will collaborate with various partners to give the public opportunities to experience the metaverse, starting off with pop-up metaverse experiences with local illustrator Dustykid and lifestyle concept space Preface Coffee & Wine.
AR training for educators, students and the public
With more than 700 million people using AR across Meta’s apps and devices every month, AR may well be one of the most in-demand skills for the workforce. To inspire the public and empower them with technological skills and opportunities for their future, Meta will partner with two local leading training organizations, Hong Kong Productivity Council and FevaWorks, to host a series of training workshops for students and educators. These workshops will help local students learn AR skills and equip educators with the most up-to-date knowledge and skills to teach their students about AR, thereby making relevant skills accessible to more students across Hong Kong. Those who successfully complete the program will also get a certificate to prove their Spark AR training skills. Agent of Change, a long-term charity partner of Meta, will also lead community outreach and amplify the program’s impact across the education sector.
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Inspiring creators, pushing arts and culture forward
The arts and culture industry is an increasingly important economic driver for Hong Kong, and the intersection of arts, culture and technology presents vast growth opportunities. Creators are using new technologies like NFTs to take more control over their work, their relationship with their fans, and how they can monetize. In the coming days, Meta will begin to test digital collectibles with selected Hong Kong creators including Dustykid who will be able to share on Instagram the NFTs that they have created or bought. Meta will look at what creators are already doing across Meta’s technologies in order to improve the experience, help them create more monetization opportunities, and eventually bring NFTs to a broader audience.