Dubai to support over 40k jobs in the metaverse

Updated on: 20 July 2022

Jurgita Lapienytė
Chief Editor

Dubai skyscrapers — Image by Shutterstock

Dubai launched its metaverse strategy to turn the city into one of the world’s top 10 metaverse economies.

Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum shared his vision to transform the emirate into “a global capital of advanced technologies, primarily artificial intelligence (AI) and Web3.”

Dubai hopes to attract over 1,000 blockchain and metaverse companies and support more than 40,000 virtual jobs by 2030.

Dubai strives to become a global testbed for metaverse technology, creating new work models and increasing the metaverse’s impact on regional and global economies.

Dubai’s metaverse strategy focuses on extended reality, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), mixed reality, and digital twins.

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According to the press release, VR and AR contribute $500 million to the UAE’s economy and employ over 6,700 people.

Recently, Seoul shared its ambitions to become the first and, it hopes, the best metaverse city in the world. Home to 10 million residents, the capital of South Korea sees its metaverse as a mechanism for contactless communication among and with its citizens. The first phase of its 2022-2026 plan is underway: Seoul is currently bringing services from six areas, namely the economy, education, culture and tourism, communication, urbanization, and administration, to the metaverse.

In 2020, the global metaverse market was estimated at $107 billion. It is projected to reach $758 billion by 2026. The US is currently in the lead – the country accounts for 41,2% of the global market ($58 billion). China, the world’s second-largest economy, is forecasted to reach a $103 billion metaverse market.