The Chinese nation, and indeed the entire East Asian civilization, has a strong desire for land, or rather, real estate.
The soaring prices of luxury homes in recent years are a common phenomenon worldwide.
Whether in developed or developing countries, or even underdeveloped regions, the soaring prices of luxury homes are inevitable in China, ASEAN, America, Japan, and Korea.
High housing prices not only put pressure on young people, but also on all businesses engaged in the real economy.
Manufacturing profits are so thin they can't keep up with inflation, and the profits of the real consumer sector are mostly swallowed up by rent. The soaring housing prices have not directly benefited the vast majority of people.
Indirect benefits still exist, after all, China has been investing heavily in infrastructure in recent years, and the money for infrastructure construction comes from land revenue.
This is not a phenomenon unique to China; Japan has also experienced similar events in its modern history.
The Ministry of Finance in Japan is responsible for economic planning. In the past, when Japan's economy was booming, the Ministry of Finance also used infrastructure construction to drive the economy.
From the end of World War II until the early 1990s, Japan was regarded as a model of economic success and a paradigm of economic growth.
Ezra Vogel's book, *Neon First*, is still fresh in my mind.
In fact, during these decades, there was another crisis-ridden neon:
A rigid and corrupt bureaucratic system led to a series of problems, including a command-based funding system that caused the financial system to collapse, wasteful infrastructure investment, huge hidden fiscal deficits, industrial development that ignored environmental issues, urban redevelopment that destroyed cultural heritage, and a cramming-style education system that did not emphasize skills development.
The above are all neon signs that existed in history; they are real. For more information on this history, you can refer to a book written by an American scholar about ten years ago called "Dogs and Demons."
The book title is clearly a tribute to "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword".
When this book was introduced to China, Wu Jinglian helped write the preface.
Such explosive growth in housing prices and infrastructure investment-driven GDP growth as seen in China over the past two decades has only been seen in other East Asian countries.
Infrastructure investment driving GDP growth can be seen in America's development history, and explosive growth in housing prices can be seen in Canada, but only East Asian countries have both.
This seems to be an inescapable fate for East Asian civilization.
When Tencent's Metaverse Real Estate came out, the vast majority of netizens instinctively felt disgusted.
They subconsciously believed that this was another round of exploitation tactics by large companies.
Especially after Tencent announced its price, the fact that it was one-tenth of the original price exceeded netizens' expectations.
The internet was instantly flooded with criticism, and Tencent's Metaverse Real Estate quickly became the top trending topic on Weibo.
In fact, there have been cases of real estate speculation in the metaverse for a long time, including news of domestic and foreign celebrities buying virtual real estate.
The news that JJ spent 123,000 US dollars to buy real estate in the universe also made the news back then.
However, these news items did not generate much public discussion; they were only discussed within a small circle of cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
Because the general public subconsciously feels that these things are too far removed from them, and that they are just a trick by businesses to hype things up, a game of musical chairs.
Tencent's metaverse real estate has a much greater influence.
First of all, Tencent is one of the top internet giants in China, and secondly, the number of participants in the brain-computer interface VR of Kechuang Bio far exceeds that of all previous metaverse applications.
In particular, Tencent chose to develop its real estate project in Shenzhen, a top-tier city in China.
Coupled with Shenzhen's already exorbitant housing prices, the combination of these factors has created a strong sense of identification among netizens.
Ren Yu, who was giving a speech on stage, was unaware of the influence of public opinion, or perhaps he knew but wouldn't care too much.
Tencent has extensive experience in public relations and media manipulation.
When they were preparing to develop this product, they had already conducted thorough internal analysis of its potential impact on public opinion.
Tencent has never lacked negative public opinion, but given the huge profits involved, a little more negative public opinion won't have much of an impact.
This is also because making money on NFT has been too easy over the past two years.
Therefore, they wanted to create a masterpiece that integrates the metaverse.
This refers to the product showcased by Tencent at this press conference, Huanyu-Pengcheng.
If the results are good, they plan to launch more metaverse city series in the future.
Pengcheng is just Tencent's first foray into this field.
The reason for choosing Shenzhen is that Tencent has cultivated the city for decades and established its reputation as a top contender in Shenzhen.
Pengcheng is also willing to grant authorization.
It's important to understand that without authorization from the local government, an app named after a city will definitely not be able to obtain a distribution license.
There aren't many internet companies that can actually get this done.
As for why Pengcheng dared to do this, half of the profits from virtual real estate go to them.
The revenue from the first phase of 50,000 real estate units alone reached 17.5 billion.
It's worth noting that Nanshan District's annual fiscal revenue is 36.1 billion RMB, and the revenue from the first phase of virtual real estate alone accounts for half of Nanshan District's fiscal revenue.
Shenzhen's annual tax revenue is approximately 190 billion yuan.
At the same time, Shenzhen is not worried about being held accountable if any problems arise, because as a special economic zone, it needs to be bold in exploring new paths.
In other words, while other first-tier cities may need to go through a lengthy process of deliberation, Shenzhen can skip that and just get started.
"In addition, I need to explain some issues that people may have thought of, or rather, issues that they haven't thought of."
"First of all, there is the issue of uniqueness. Every virtual property we sell in Huanyu-Pengcheng is bound to a real-world address in the backend."
This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
