Dubai, UAE—Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the two biggest economies in the Arabian Gulf region, are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the metaverse. Many metaverse firsts have occurred in this region.
“Is metaverse a good investment for businesses in the Arabian Gulf countries?” TRENDS posed this question to Twitter users.
Most of the respondents (37 percent) consider the metaverse “just a fad”, while 31.5 percent see it as a good investment for GCC businesses in all sectors and 20.8 percent of the respondents believe the metaverse is suitable only for gaming.Â
Only about 10.6 percent of the respondents believe it is a good investment for other sectors like banking, real estate, sports and musical events.
More than 85 percent of the respondents were males and the rest were females. Nearly 42 percent of the respondents were between 20 and 29 years, 41.2 percent were between 30 and 39 years, 11.8 percent between 40 and 49 years and only 5.1 percent were above 50.
The majority (32.8 percent) of the respondents were from Bahrain, followed by Lebanon (31.7 percent), the UAE (21.7 percent), Qatar (7.4 percent) and Saudi Arabia (6.4 percent).
Big investments
Saudi Arabia will spend US$6.4 billion on advanced technologies, including US$1 billion investment in the NEOM Tech & Digital Company. The firm is planning to introduce its own metaverse, or 3D digital world, where users can interact with one another.
In the UAE, Damac bets big on digital property. The Group plans to invest up to $100 million in the project, including building its own virtual cities.
The Dubai World Trade Centre has unveiled MetaIncubator, the region’s first metaverse incubator. The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) has created a new metaverse platform to provide individuals with remote access to healthcare and other preventative services.Â
Eikonikos, a private sector metaverse business based in Dubai, has just secured US$2 million in pre-seed funding.