Meta Taiwan recently announced that it has joined hands with Taiwan's III (Institute for Information Industry) - a major government think tank and one of leading industry consulting institutes in Taiwan - to launch first Asia's physical base for XR (Extended Reality) research in Taiwan, the CTIMES reported on May 8. The new base called "Meta XR Hub Taiwan" is located in Taipei, Taiwan, with an aim to promote the commercialization of the immersive and interactive technologies such as AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality), XR (Mixed Reality), and digital twins. The reason behind choosing Taiwan to be Meta's first Asia hub of its kind is that Taiwan has pioneered in IT hardware manufacturing and has been the trusted partner for customers around the world. For this reason, Meta believes Taiwan will become an important stronghold for the metaverse as well. To begin with, Meta plans to collaborate with Taiwan Creative Content Agency, Taiwan External Trade Development Council, and Taiwan Computer Association to launch a series of online and physical education and training programs, workshops, and contests.
"III continues to play its role as the digital transformation enabler by setting up the XR Hub Taiwan with Meta to help attract more foreign investment and foster innovation in metaverse associated with arts and culture, economic business, and social welfare," said Dr. Cheng-hong Cho, the CEO of III. Over 63% of Taiwanese adults have AR experience while 50% of them have VR experience, according to MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute), a division of the III. The findings suggest younger consumers age 18-25 have more AR (80.7%) and VR (59.7%) experiences compared to other age groups. In September 2021, MIC surveyed 2,500 Taiwanese consumers to understand their habits across AR and VR applications.