Mark Zuckerberg 'could become leader of virtual world' as 5BILLION people expected to enter metaverse by 2030

BILLIONS of people are expected to be using the Mark Zuckerberg-led metaverse by 2030.

As the main tech whizz spearheading the huge idea, Zuckerberg, 37, could find himself leading some 5billion users into the new virtual world.

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The metaverse is a growing digital space filled with virtual and augmented reality, where we could one day find ourselves working, socialising and playing.

We've already seen many real world things jump across, including restaurants, casinos, and even the metaverse's very own fashion week.

Billionaire Zuckerberg is betting his company's future on the metaverse but is keen to make it a collaborative project, describing it as an "embodied internet".

Not only do experts expect people to flock to the platform, they predict it'll be a multitrillion dollar part of the world economy.

According to Citi, it could be a $8trillion (£6.1trillion) to $13trillion (£9.9trillion) opportunity in eight years.

But it'll need massive investment to reach that stage.

"We believe the metaverse may be the next generation of the internet — combining the physical and digital world in a persistent and immersive manner — and not purely a virtual reality world," the report says.

"A device-agnostic metaverse accessible via PCs, game consoles, and smartphones could result in a very large ecosystem."

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Experts also warn that the metaverse will "attract great scrutiny from global regulators and policymakers", citing content moderation, free speech, and privacy as some of the big concerns.

They also say that money in the metaverse could exist in different forms.

This could range from in-game tokens and stablecoins, to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and cryptocurrencies.

“In addition, digital assets and NFTs, in the metaverse will enable sovereign ownership for the users/owners and are tradeable, composable, immutable, and mostly interoperable," the report states.

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