Dubai Metaverse Strategy: Real Steps Toward Virtual Leaps

With its promise to bring forth endless opportunities in social connections, mobility, and intertwining the physical world with the virtual one, the metaverse will open new economic ventures of all scales, and city is riding the wave towards its next technological advancements with the Dubai Metaverse Strategy.

The City of Gold announced plans to work alongside its private sector and investors to bring to life a new futuristic, human-centered transformation of the city. The Dubai Metaverse Strategy will soon expand its horizons to further boost its economic capabilities through the endless opportunities the metaverse offers.

The world is currently extending its embrace toward supreme digitalization, and a computer-generated environment driven by the public’s enthusiasm in this virtual space would help Dubai fulfill its ambitions of becoming one of the world’s top ten metaverse economies, as well as making a name for itself a globally renowned metaverse hub for the virtual universe’s community.

Through the integration of social media, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), video games, cryptocurrency, and other advanced technologies, Dubai will be able to build on its achievement of attracting more than 1000 companies. The potential has never been more substantial. Dubai Municipality is also planning to launch “One Human Reality Talks,” to join forces with investors to develop and share this new strategy and the endless possibilities it can bring to the economy.

UAE’s Economic Ventures

Earlier this year, the Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced the launch of the Dubai Metaverse Strategy. The goal is quite clear, to maximize the contribution of the metaverse sector to the emirate’s economy to $4 billion by 2030, with a dedicated task force to track the latest developments in the digital economy. This includes technology and metaverse trends.

Dubai aspires to become a key player in the virtual world. To achieve these aspirations, the city will have to build on previous successes that Dubai and the broader United Arab Emirates (UAE) have already accomplished. The strategy focuses on using metaverse technology to assist the virtualization of 42,000 positions and catalyze resident surgeons’ performance by 230 percent and engineers’ productivity by 30 percent. Dubai is creating a regulatory and legislative framework for the industry to position itself as a giant in the virtual world, with the establishment of programs and initiatives to advance its position in the virtual world.

To turn Dubai into one of the world’s leading metaverse economies, it will strive to qualify human capital to succeed in the virtual world. By 2025, it is precedented that the metaverse’s commercial profits will probably increase from $180 billion to $400 billion.

Joining Efforts Through Attraction

The Dubai Metaverse Strategy seeks to bring in more than 1,000 blockchain and metaverse businesses and sustain more than 40,000 virtual employments by 2030. With such offered services from the virtual world, the economic efficacy of Dubai, in particular, and the UAE, in general, will be mainly supported by governmental efforts to triple the emergence of blockchain businesses, compared to the ones currently operating in the region.

The UAE is showcasing its willingness to bet on the high-risk advanced technology industry. As the country hopes to diversify its economy, Emirati leaders wish the tech sector might replicate the oil industry’s effect on the economy. Industry 4.0 is set to improve the UAE’s overall industrial competitiveness, drive costs, promote productivity and efficiency, double down on safety, and create new jobs.

The metaverse, a significant part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, is the next promising technology frontier, and the UAE will be at the forefront and center. The metaverse unites 5G, AI, blockchain, content creation, and various elements. Leading firms in the UAE are investing majorly in this ever-present world as users spend maximum hours in the virtual world, mainly gaming, shopping, and browsing social media, to name a few.

Damac Group has said it would build its digital cities and could become one of the pioneers in the GCC if it does so. The realty firm will execute its vision through Damac Properties, data center firm Edgenex, luxury jeweler de Grisogono and fashion house Roberto Cavalli, which will launch virtual homes, digital property, digital wearables, and digital jewelry. Meanwhile, another Dubai-based real estate brokerage Union Square House (USH), is set to launch the first metaverse mansions in the nation. In addition to ownership, investing in digital villas allows buyers to view their properties in Augmented Reality form and interact with other users and digital neighbors.

On September 6, 2022, one of the leading companies investing their efforts into the virtual universe, nominated Dubai and Abu Dhabi as the two first cities to join its “world first” virtual world. Metaverse Holding’s World First virtual world will be a replicated version of the physical world, merging the boundaries of real and simulated universes.

Users globally will be able to experience Dubai and Abu Dhabi’s most fantastic attractions and landmarks alongside essential world utilities from the comfort of their homes, merging the physical and digital worlds. This will be within a Beta version to be live by October 2022 and available worldwide by the end of the year.

Meeting Point of Global Technology

The rise of Web 3 and the metaverse will have “limitless” possibilities of how it could impact industries and communities in the UAE. The metaverse could allow Dubai to create new worlds and redefine how business is done – a significant pivot from the “transactional” nature of Web 2, or the internet as we know it now. The UAE has grown in the potential to become a hub for both talent and innovation in the space.

The Dubai Metaverse Strategy aims at ensuring that the metaverse increases its contribution to one percent of the emirate’s overall GDP. Headed by the Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the strategy is built around five pillars: innovation, government implementation of metaverse technologies, and talent development. The move consolidates Dubai’s position as “a leading global hub for innovative new concepts and disruptive economic and technological models.

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