Despite the scepticism levelled at much of the industry, generally focusing on the shockingly low user figures in Decentraland or the vast investment made by Meta for ‘fake legs’, the enthusiasm at GITEX GLOBAL was palpable.
To help propel the Web 3.0 economy, GITEX GLOBAL featured X-VERSE, an immersive metaverse journey featuring 28 experiential brands; and Global DevSlam, the Middle East’s largest ever coder and developer meetup. Global DevSlam is an important initiative that supports the National Program for Coders, which aims to make the UAE a global hub for the development of coders.
The allure of the metaverse
Within the next decade, an aggressive estimate from Angelika Gifford, Meta Vice President for MENA argues the metaverse has the potential to add $3T to global GDP — a contribution of 2.8% — with the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey set to benefit from more than $360B or 6.2% of GDP. She commented “[T]he metaverse will reach a billion people in the next decade, drive billions in revenue and create millions of jobs” stressing that the metaverse is “the biggest creation since the start of the internet”. Her advice for anyone wanting to get involved in the metaverse was: “build muscle” by “playing around”.
Demonstrating the scale of ambition for metaverse practitioners, Orbital Assembly (OA) – developer of the first space park with gravity – announced a strategic collaboration with Dream Big World to develop the first terrestrial retail experience in space at X-VERSE. Juan De Lascurain, CEO, Dream Big World, stated that its customers will be able to enjoy different digital experiences utilising VR, NFT, digital fashion, and the Metaverse.