Exclusive: China's Grand Virtual Worlds Plan - A First Hand Look

China Recreation District (CRD) is quite simply undertaking the largest virtual worlds effort that we know of and certainly the largest supported by a government. Several third-party reports have surfaced, but many have misreported the facts or do not have all the information.  I've listed a number of details below gained through first-hand conversations with CRD executives during my recent 6-day visit to Beijing earlier this month.

The CRD's goal is to create a virtual economy providing infrastructure and platforms through which any business - not just those based in China - can come in world and sell their real-world products and services.  While a concerted effort will be placed on bringing Chinese businesses and consumers in world, the effort is worldwide and open to businesses and consumers from any country.  The entire project is expected to launch in June 2008.

- The CRD operates in an 80-square-kilometer complex in West Beijing that is still being developed.  200 game and multimedia content producers are currently on site.  The facility is huge, allowing for whatever physical needs the CRD may have - think incubators, room for virtual worlds partners (both China Mobile and Everbright Bank have offices on site), data centers, entrepreneurship centers, training facilities, a real-world amusement park, a game center, etc. 

- CRD is a partnership between private industry and the Chinese government.  The government involvement is important.  The land for the complex was granted by the government, and I suspect that the government will play an active role in marketing the virtual economy to businesses as well. To be honest, I'm still trying to understand the government's role is in the business and am curious to what extent the government will be able to drive business adoption as well as consumer adoption.

- Between now and the end of 2010, the CRD, intends to bring 150 million middle-class Chinese people and companies into their virtual world platform.

- CRD operates under the "DOTMAN" brand with six virtual spaces:

• DOTLIFE - provides 3D models and databases for individuals and companies in the world
• DOTBANK - banking and transaction services
• DOTMEDIA - communications services
• DOTSPACE - content pooling, trading platforms, and libraries for 3D models, animations, films, games, and other digital content
• DOTGAME - online games
• DOTBASE - Internet-related services from customer service to bandwidth

- Partner Mindark is providing the first virtual worlds platform (original article here).  Other platforms will be included sometime after launch.  At the kickoff event which I attended, HiPiHi presented as did RTMAsia which represents Linden Lab's Second Life in China.

- There are 9 Chinese virtual worlds platforms currently under development.  HiPiHi is currently the most well known of the 9 in the west.  I did have the honor of meeting Eric Ye, President of UOneNet which is developing uWorld. No other worlds were mentioned, though we reported in August that China-based Novoking was entering a private beta. We've also seen a fair amount business, including an AMD shop, in iPart.

- Partner Paynova is providing the first online payment services. (details here)

- China Mobile, the largest mobile operator in China, is a CRD partner and given their size this is a big deal.  As of 31 December 2006, China Mobile reported an aggregate staff of 111,998, an aggregate mobile telecommunications subscriber base of over 301.2 million, and a market share of approximately 67.5 percent in mainland China.  Example of how this partnership may work:  For every 100 minutes you use on China Mobile you might earn a virtual $1 to spend within the CRD virtual world platform.

- Everbright Bank, a Chinese bank in which the government has a large stake, announced that it will operate the first in world bank dubbed MicroBank.  From its website: At the end of 2003, China Everbright Bank had established over 370 banking offices in 36 major cities throughout 23 provinces, autonomous regions, and city provinces throughout the country. Services for Chinese customers will include clearing and settlement services for transactions and payments.  The bank will also make investments although I did not gain clarification as to the types of virtual worlds investments the bank will be making.

- The first customer of the CRD virtual world platform is clothing manufacturer China Beckman Group.  Example here of how this effort might work.

- The current virtual world platform, partners, and Beckman are scheduled to come online in June 2008.

- Other platforms will complement the Mindark platform.  No word yet on which other platforms will be used.

That sums up the CRD operations and scale that we know of currently.  We'll be keeping you up dated as more news becomes public.

Christopher Sherman
Editor
www.VirtualWorldsNews.com

Comments

[manpreet]

Seems quite interesting. if the project is really successful, i will be a beginning of more such initiatives by other companies. And it brings important task of "InterConnectivity in Virtual Worlds" into execution. I feel the virtual worlds will be made more compatible with each other with this initiative. The whole virtual gaming industry is very important to china given the employment it generates for the Chinese Farmers..

[sangya]

is this project still going on?? it seems to be disappeard from the agenda?!?!