India, unlike the making of the internet, where the country had little say, has the opportunity to shape what the metaverse can become globally, according to Meta Platforms’ India head Ajit Mohan.
Mohan said India’s digital ecosystem looks dramatically different from 20 years ago, with a strong base of entrepreneurs, capital inflow, and innovations like the Unified Payments Interface, while speaking at the Carnegie India Global Tech Summit on Wednesday.
He went on to say that India has a fundamental advantage in that its young population can embrace change and adopt new technologies faster than any other culture on the planet.
“I think the question for India is ‘how do we make sure we’re playing a material role in contributing to the shape of what the Metaverse becomes through our ideas, entrepreneurial energy and through developers,” Meta Platforms’ VP and MD in India said. Doing so would expand the opportunities for the country’s people as well, he said.
India might be the right market to shape the Metaverse
In response to questions about content moderation on Meta (formerly Facebook), which has become a point of contention between several governments around the world and the company, Mohan stated that Meta has spent $30 billion over the last five years improving safety and security on its platforms, which is having a significant impact as hate speech prevalence has dropped to just 0.3 percent.
For a long time, the business has been a proponent of a new set of standards for tech companies. “We do believe that societies around the world can benefit from greater clarity on requiring companies to be transparent about how data is used. The second is how do we ensure that people still have agency in a world where algorithms will have a huge role to play?” Mohan said.
