Welcome Everyone to the new The Metaverse Asia Podcast!! If you own #NFTs or #crypto, you’re part of the metaversal experience. #VR and #AR are #metaverse adjacent. If you are a Chief Metaverse Officer, Community Builder, Tech Builder, Founder, Enthusiast or you’ve attended a work meeting or a party using a digital avatar, you’re treading into the neighborhood of #metaversality and focus of our spotlight in Asia and beyond!

Recently there has been a lot of #VR#AR investment, with a number of rounds closing. There are a few different reasons - such as low interest rates - but a few factors are at play in the #immersive industry. Here are just a few examples over a few weeks: Jigspace raised $4.7m in Series A funding; Tripp raised $11m in Series A funding; Virti raised $10m in Series A funding; VRChat raised $80m in Series D funding; Magnopus acquired REWIND.

Why do our podcast guests and listeners think this is? Are the numbers making sense financially? Are business realising the benefits of using VR/AR for training and are willing to pay extra for the higher retention rates? People are getting use to using AR/VR in their lives and are more willing to use it. The interest is exploding with business and schools. Also the numbers are beginning to get huge on the consumer side. #BeatSaber has sold 4 million copies and 40 million songs and is estimated to have made 180 million (and accelerating) showing the pace of growth in consumer side. On both the consumer and B2B side, the acceleration is because you don’t need a computer and the headset is wireless with VR. The phones are showing AR better with the change in technology in them too. Plus using AR/VR is getting easier to use for most people, ramping up acceptance and adoption. We think all these are the reasons the numbers are getting better and investments are happening.

P.S. We have tons of exciting live-taping, podcast episode replays, virtual experience events coming up, starting July 2021! Including the launch of the PodFest Asia Virtual Experience Gallery!! To ensure everyone can attend we are holding the event and announcing new opening times shortly. Can’t make it at these times? Don’t worry! The links to these, and many other cool rooms, will be posted in our show notes as well as our discord server bit.ly/podfestasia for you to check out whenever you like! Stay tuned here for more info, and also check out the newsletter podfestasia.substack.com and our Linktree https://linktr.ee/Podfestasia for all the other exciting events happening over the next month!!