Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Dec.15: Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Meta (previously Facebook), on Wednesday said that India’s entrepreneurial spirit and vast scale are fueling confidence about the country’s future and potential.
In a speech at Meta’s Fuel for India 2021, Zuckerberg expressed his enthusiasm for India’s involvement in the metaverse’s development.
The term “metaverse” refers to a hybrid of technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and video in which users “live” in a digital realm.
“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… That is what is fuelling a lot of the internet economy in India already, but it also makes me so optimistic about the future here,” he said.
He went on to say that India’s talent pool, which includes engineers, developers, and creators, as well as the strong startup ecosystem, is helping to shape the future.
“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.
“The online gaming sector in India has seen a lot of growth over the past few years and our investment in gaming in the country keeps growing as we look at how it’s going to take shape in the metaverse,” he said.
He also noted that the metaverse will not be built by any one company and will need collaborative efforts.
“And that’s what we’re so excited about seeing here in India is the developer ecosystem, 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’re going to see a huge amount of (the foundation) get built here in India,” he said.
Zuckerberg also stated that the company is investing in other growing areas like education and commerce through investments in platforms like Unacademy and Meesho.
“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… We want to make sure that we can do our part to continue unlocking this (India’s) potential,” he emphasised.
