Macron Shows Up on Decentraland: First Presidential Speech in the Metaverse

The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, showed up on Decentraland metaverse while giving a speech at public investment bank’s Bpifrance event.

A Big Business Event

On the 6th of October, the “Big 2022” event occurred both in the physical location in Paris and the designated area on the Decentraland metaverse. Multiple speakers covered topics on innovation, business, creative industries, climate change, deep tech, and healthcare.

One of the speakers was President Macron. It was the first time users could listen to the President of France in a digital environment. On the stage, he praised the exceptional strength of French entrepreneurs that developed “27 unicorns and 138,000 companies that export and bring the country to life.”

Macron referred to the “France 2030” investment plan as accelerating the reindustrialization of the country. “France 2030” is an investment plan that was revealed by authorities on the 12th of October, 2021, and it focuses on sectors of France’s industrial future supporting the transformation of the automotive, aerospace, digital, green industry, biotechnology, culture, and healthcare sectors in the French economy.

"We are reindustrializing on the great needs of the nation and on regions that may have been in difficulty. The metamorphosis is always scary, but it's a formidable unknown! It's what we experience in our companies, and it's an antidote to the hate speech that we can know. Reindustrialization necessarily involves deep tech: find in our startups the innovations that will make the great revolutions of tomorrow!" said Macron.

The event was organized in collaboration with Metaverse event company RLTY, which specializes in building infrastructures for virtual events across music, arts, fashion, and corporate industries.

World Leaders Supporting the Metaverse

As big tech companies are working towards creating the metaverse, innovation has attracted the attention of world leaders.

During his election campaign, Macron expressed his vision for the European metaverse. He believes it should help to protect the copyrights of creators and not “depend on Anglo-Saxon or Chinese players or aggregators.”

Another country that seeks to embrace the metaverse on a national level is the UAE. Dubai’s crown prince announced in July 2002 a new metaverse strategy that aims to create 40,000 virtual jobs over the next five years. Also, the new plan should help develop new government work models that promote growth in critical sectors such as tourism, education, retail, remote work, healthcare, and legal.

Japan is also creating its plan for the metaverse. Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida claimed the government is working to promote Web 3.0 services, including those concerned with NFTs and the metaverse.

According to him, the Japanese government’s digital transformation plan for the country already includes provisions for giving NFTs to local authorities, who have been using digital technology to address the issues in their territories.

On the Flipside

• The metaverse’s smooth and immersive experience is deeply dependent on hardware. Tech companies are trying to secure their share in the VR hardware market, but the technology is still developing. 
• Many users have stated that, while trying out VR technology for the first time, even if they don’t often have motion sickness, they tend to feel unbearably uncomfortable after just a brief session.

Why You Should Care

According to estimates, the metaverse market was worth $27.21 billion in 2020 and is expected to be worth $824.53 billion by 2030, rising at a 39.1% CAGR from 2022 to 2030.

Read more about UAE developing the metaverse:
Dubai Aims to Become Metaverse Capital of the World

Read more about big tech companies developing the metaverse:
Big Tech Metaverses: Everything You Need To Know About Meta, Microsoft, Google, and Apple