India is going to be a huge part of building the metaverse: Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta, is excited about the role that India will play in building the future for metaverse. “The engineers, developers and creators, and your whole vibrant start-up ecosystem are playing a huge role in shaping the future,” he said. Zuckerberg was speaking to Vishal Shah, Vice President, Meta, at the second edition of Fuel for India 2021. He further noted that India is on track to have the largest app developer base in the world by 2024, and already has one of the largest spark AR developer communities.

Zuckerberg also noted the growth seen in the online gaming sector in India over the past few years and added that “our investment in gaming in the country keeps growing as we look at how it is going to take shape in the metaverse”.

On Meta’s vision for the metaverse, Zuckerberg affirmed, “I think that the metaverse is going to be the successor to mobile Internet. It is this immersive Internet (or embodied Internet), where you are in it rather than seeing it...This is going to be an Internet where you feel like you are there and you are present with people and in other places. And, I think it’s this continuation of the technological trends that we’ve seen over the last few decades.”

He further said that in order for the metaverse to work, millions of creators around the world will have to be empowered and added that “this isn’t going to get built by any one company or even a small number of companies”. Zuckerberg is excited about seeing the developer ecosystem in India. “The ecosystem of individual entrepreneurs, the spirit around that is one of the things that makes India so special and is [why] I think we are going to see a huge amount of [the foundation] get built here in India,” he added.

Further, in India, Zuckerberg also spoke about investing in other growing areas such as education and commerce through investments in Unacademy and Meesho, “which are important use cases as we think about the future that we’re building”. He further said, “We want to continue to partner in all of these areas as we accelerate the development of the fundamental technologies, the social platforms and creative tools that are going to be necessary to bring the metaverse to life.” He also spoke about Meta’s partnership with the Central Board of Secondary Education, saying that it is a huge opportunity to invest in this entrepreneurial spirit and bring some of these tools around the metaverse, AR, and training to the education system in India.

On what makes India such an exciting place for tech innovation, Zuckerberg elaborated, “The reason why India is so exciting to me is two things that combined together make for something special – the entrepreneurial spirit, combined with the scale of what can happen...This is what is fuelling a lot of the Internet economy in India already, but this is what makes me so optimistic about the future.”

“When we are thinking about what the next generation is going to look like in terms of where these creators and developers are going to come from who are going to build the foundation of the metaverse – I think it’s obvious that India is going to be a huge part of that...We want to make sure that we can do our part to continue unlocking this [India’s] potential. Because I think the experiences that people build here are going to make people’s lives better all around the world.”