Special Edition – Is This the On-Ramp to the Metaverse for the Masses? – Andy Tian, CEO Asia Innovations Group and Alvin Wang Graylin, China President at HTC

by Michael Waitze | Aug 12, 2022

We wanted to have a discussion about “The Metaverse for the Masses” and we could not have asked for two better guests.

Andy Tian, the CEO of Asia Innovations Group and Alvin Wang Graylin, the China President at HTC, have not only known each other since their days at MIT, but are also long-time experts in this field.

Some of the topics we covered:

What is the metaverse and how would we define it?
The necessity of technological on-ramps, awareness and literacy
Emerging market users and what they really want from the metaverse
Asia Innovations Group’s metaverse white paper
Is blockchain technology necessary for the widespread use of the metaverse?
Do we sometimes forget how immersive real-life already is?

This episode was produced by UnderCover Media.

Follow Michael Waitze and the Asia Tech Podcast here:

Facebook – Michael Waitze

Facebook – Asia Tech Podcast

LinkedIn – Michael Waitze

Twitter – Michael Waitze

Stay Informed: Subscribe to the ATP Newsletter

Receive the latest updates directly in your inbox
and stay up to date with the most recent technological innovations across the Asia-Pacific region

Latest Episodes:

EP 417 – AI Agents Can Think and Act. Is Your Business Ready? – Raymond Ngan, Appian

Mar 11, 2026

For many years, automation inside businesses followed simple rules. If something happened, a system performed the next predefined step. That model created enormous efficiencies, but it was limited by rigid logic and narrow workflows. Today, a new generation of artificial intelligence is emerging that can reason about problems, plan tasks, and take action across multiple systems.

EP 416 – Is B2B FinTech Quietly Running Asia’s Economy? – Raunak Dembla and Daniel Keki

Mar 4, 2026

FinTech headlines often focus on consumer apps, but the bigger economic story in Asia may be happening in business finance. B2B fintech targets the problems that shape real growth: helping companies get paid, manage working capital, move money across supply chains, and access services like lending, payments, and treasury in a reliable way.

EP 415 – If Cyber Attacks Move at Light Speed, Can Humans Defend? – Guy Brown and Tony Jarvis

Feb 25, 2026

Automated traffic is starting to outweigh human traffic online, and a growing share of it is not harmless. Attacks are no longer occasional or manual—they are constant, adaptive, and increasingly powered by AI.