Can Asia lead the world in Web3 and Metaverse? | Dr. Jane Thomason

Web 3 Metaverse in Asia. and the question today is can Asia lead in the world of Web 3 and the Metaverse?

Let’s just look at a little bit of history. So, Asia already has the most gamers in the world, with China, Japan, and South Korea exceeding the revenue and players of the United States and Germany, the other big gaming countries. Asia is the biggest gaming market, with 1.6 billion players. That’s about half the entire global players in the world. And the mobile network is going to be huge, with 79% of people under 22 playing mobile games, and $2.7 billion US value in mobile games.

Asia loves eSports, they’re the biggest eSports market. They’re devoted to competitive video gaming. And eSports like Dota International, League of Legends. They’re providing tens of millions of dollars in prizes for competitors and revenue for organizers and set to grow. Asia is the fastest growing market and the largest market. Now let’s move to Web3, which is a rapidly growing market. With a total transaction volume reaching $5.41 billion in 2022, and expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 70%.

Web3 gaming is growing in Korea, Philippines, and Vietnam the fastest. $3.3 billion has been raised for Web3 games in 2021, and it’s estimated it’s a $200 billion addressable market. Robbie Ferguson from Immutable, which is Australia’s first Web3 unicorn, said we’re going to see 40% of all Web3 games released over the next year to a year and a half, and attempting to hit more than 100 million players with those games. Why is Web3 gaming going to take off? First thing is because of ownership. In Web3, players can own their assets.

Secondly, players can earn income related to the ownership of these assets and can sell these items inside and outside of platforms. Web3 is easy to modify, and it allows gamers to introduce changes into the game to fit their needs. It allows interoperability, so gamers can switch their digital assets easily in the form of NFTs to allow them to move between games and applications. And Web3 gaming is growing in Asia. Asia will make up 80% of all Web3 gamers and Asian-based video game publishers are starting to use Web3 gaming, and in India, 34% of gamers have been playing play-to-earn games.

So we’re seeing a lot of movement in Web3. Now play-to-earn games made Web3 famous with Axie Infinity, but they’ve come under some criticism because of the poor game quality, the unsustainable tokenomics, and the domination of wealthier players. So now we’re seeing a phenomenon of play and earn games, which is combining the financial rewards of the play to earn gaming with high quality gameplay experiences to attract players to the games. And play and earn games prioritise security and transparency, establish partnerships and provide continuous updates and content to the gamers, and help educate players to make it easier for them to access the blockchain gaming ecosystem.

They also provide an array of diverse earning opportunities for players, and they focus on developing an engaging storyline to connect players to the game. The tokenomics are built to be sustainable, allowing for long-term growth. The game quality is number one. And inclusivity, play and earn games allow free-to-play models, compared with the play-to-earn models where players have to have the resources to invest in digital assets. So in summary, Web3 focused games allow you to play as owner. You own your assets. You can earn while you play. You can move your assets from one platform to another. And you have the freedom to change the game. Web3 games have metaverse elements to them and this is set to grow with leading players in the region being Tencent, NetEase and Nexon, and China, Japan, South Korea and India are the major metaverse growth markets.

Asia is the largest gaming market in the world. With the per capita GDP growth is going to drive Asia’s market share in the global games market. Of the top 100 gaming markets, 62 gaming companies, 62 are from Asia and Asia will make up 80% of all Web3 gamers. Metaverse Asia is set to grow. already leads in Web3 metaverse. We need to look to Asia for the innovation, for the growth, and for the ideas. Thank you for listening and please be in touch if I can give you more information or help you out with your thinking about Web3. I’m Dr. Jane.