- French president last week became the first political leader to give a speech in the metaverse
- Emmanuel Macron appeared on stage in the Decentraland metaverse to discuss France’s tech plans
- Japan has also announced investment in the metaverse and NFT areas
French president Emmanuel Macron became the first political leader to give a speech in the metaverse last week when he showed up unannounced in the Decentraland metaverse while giving a speech at public investment bank’s Bpifrance event. Macron was beamed to the smattering of bemused Decentraland visitors, where he praised French entrepreneurs and renewed his vision for France 2030, which will see huge investment in a number of vital sectors.
👏 Bravo à toutes nos équipes de RLTY qui ont créé et déployé l’event #Big2022 de @Bpifrance en moins de 24h!
🎙La journée a très bien commencé avec l’intervention de notre Président Monsieur @EmmanuelMacron ❤️
See you on @decentraland 👇https://t.co/PDykHRguLu pic.twitter.com/ZPvnQj9Al1
— RLTY (@RLTY_Live) October 6, 2022
Macron Praised French Developers
There have been a few interesting and novel visitors to the metaverse since the space opened its doors, with Barcelona footballer Kevin Prince Boateng conducting a marriage service and Mark Zuckerberg continually loitering in there with his weirdly smooth-faced avatar hoping someone will be nice to him, but never before has someone of Macron’s stature braved the empty arena.
Macron’s speech was organised in collaboration with event company RLTY, which specialises in building infrastructures for virtual events across music, arts, fashion, and corporate industries. In the speech, Macron praised the exceptional strength of French entrepreneurs that developed “27 unicorns and 138,000 companies that export and bring the country to life.”
France to Follow Japan into Web 3.0?
France 2030 will see the country invest in a number of areas it sees as key to its future success, with digital area one of those highlights. While Macron didn’t go as far as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and explicitly lay out plans for public investment in the metaverse and NFTs, the fact that he was appearing on a stage in the metaverse clearly shows that this area holds some interest for him
