Much like in the West, people in China are fascinated by what the metaverse could become, and the potential market size of this theoretical digital parallel world could be lucrative—one that Morgan Stanley values at $8 trillion (in the future), per CNBC.

But participation in Chinese metaverses comes with a huge and obvious caveat: they will be governed by a unique, and stringent, set of rules mirroring those being applied to China’s internet realm currently. The result could be a vastly different metaverse landscape.

Still confused about what the metaverse is? Click here to read our primer.

Tech companies in China are in pursuit of their metaverse dream—on a tightrope

Chinese tech companies of all sizes are rushing into the metaverse, seeing it as an exciting and new business opportunity as well as a potential market disruptor not seen since short video and livestream shopping.

Roughly 1,600 firms had applied for 11,000 trademarks with the Chinese word for metaverse (yuan yuzhou) in them by the end of 2021, per The Economist. Meanwhile, Meta’s VR headsets have been banned in the country.