While metaverse fever has swept the globe this year, one of China's tech behemoths has unveiled a variation of the virtual ecosystem that has so far failed to impress.
The metaverse is a virtual world in which humans communicate using three-dimensional characters. It is roughly defined as the next generation of the internet. In October, Facebook joined the trend by changing its name to Meta and announcing intentions to invest $10 billion in related ventures over the following year.
Metaverse news is also causing a stir in China. Baidu, based in Beijing, will hold its annual developers' conference on Monday in the virtual environment of its XiRang metaverse app. It will be China's first metaverse conference, according to the business.
At a preview event, however, the XiRang executive in charge dampened expectations by pointing out how many components were still lacking.
The app's development began in December of last year, but it will take another "negative six" years to complete, according to Ma Jie, a vice president of Baidu, who spoke to reporters in Mandarin. In response to inquiries about the chronology, Ma apologised, saying, "That's a really excellent question, but I may not have a very good explanation."
According to Ma, Baidu's app can currently hold 100,000 virtual guests for Monday's meeting, as shown in a visual image of the virtual stadium.
According to him, Baidu wants to create an open-source platform for metaverse developers — a virtual world's infrastructure.
The ceremony on Monday marked the official launch of XiRang to developers, with a focus on China for the time being.
“The metaverse, while a buzzword in the global tech and investment community, is still very much in its infancy,” Brian Tycangco, analyst at Stansberry Research, said in email. “A lot of people don’t even fully understand what the word means today or will mean in the next 3 to 5 years.”
According to him, Baidu's timeframe reflects the company's knowledge of the metaverse, its cautious approach to controlling expectations, and China's legal climate. "Baidu is clearly attempting to 'possess' the metaverse in its own market while conforming to Beijing's new anti-monopoly policies, as evidenced by the open platform."
In the previous 18 months, the Chinese government has imposed fines and new rules on suspected monopolistic actions by China's internet tech titans. This year, Beijing also passed a new data privacy law. According to analysts, authorities are attempting to address concerns of income disparity while promoting innovation-driven growth.
In a statement, Baidu noted that openness is ingrained in the company and that encouraging open source development allows applications to be adopted more broadly and faster.
The company began as an online search engine about 22 years ago and has since expanded to include cloud computing, artificial intelligence, robotaxis, and other technologies.
China's internet is closely regulated by the government, with foreign social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter being blocked. Google's search engine was only used in China for a short time.
Analysts are divided on how swiftly China's metaverse is evolving in comparison to the United States.
Alibaba has a website dedicated to their metaverse cloud services. In an earnings call in November, Tencent CEO Martin Lau stated that he expected the Chinese government to promote the development of metaverse technology, with rules tailored to the Chinese market.
(Surce:www.cnbc.com)
The metaverse is a virtual world in which humans communicate using three-dimensional characters. It is roughly defined as the next generation of the internet. In October, Facebook joined the trend by changing its name to Meta and announcing intentions to invest $10 billion in related ventures over the following year.
Metaverse news is also causing a stir in China. Baidu, based in Beijing, will hold its annual developers' conference on Monday in the virtual environment of its XiRang metaverse app. It will be China's first metaverse conference, according to the business.
At a preview event, however, the XiRang executive in charge dampened expectations by pointing out how many components were still lacking.
The app's development began in December of last year, but it will take another "negative six" years to complete, according to Ma Jie, a vice president of Baidu, who spoke to reporters in Mandarin. In response to inquiries about the chronology, Ma apologised, saying, "That's a really excellent question, but I may not have a very good explanation."
According to Ma, Baidu's app can currently hold 100,000 virtual guests for Monday's meeting, as shown in a visual image of the virtual stadium.
According to him, Baidu wants to create an open-source platform for metaverse developers — a virtual world's infrastructure.
The ceremony on Monday marked the official launch of XiRang to developers, with a focus on China for the time being.
“The metaverse, while a buzzword in the global tech and investment community, is still very much in its infancy,” Brian Tycangco, analyst at Stansberry Research, said in email. “A lot of people don’t even fully understand what the word means today or will mean in the next 3 to 5 years.”
According to him, Baidu's timeframe reflects the company's knowledge of the metaverse, its cautious approach to controlling expectations, and China's legal climate. "Baidu is clearly attempting to 'possess' the metaverse in its own market while conforming to Beijing's new anti-monopoly policies, as evidenced by the open platform."
In the previous 18 months, the Chinese government has imposed fines and new rules on suspected monopolistic actions by China's internet tech titans. This year, Beijing also passed a new data privacy law. According to analysts, authorities are attempting to address concerns of income disparity while promoting innovation-driven growth.
In a statement, Baidu noted that openness is ingrained in the company and that encouraging open source development allows applications to be adopted more broadly and faster.
The company began as an online search engine about 22 years ago and has since expanded to include cloud computing, artificial intelligence, robotaxis, and other technologies.
China's internet is closely regulated by the government, with foreign social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter being blocked. Google's search engine was only used in China for a short time.
Analysts are divided on how swiftly China's metaverse is evolving in comparison to the United States.
Alibaba has a website dedicated to their metaverse cloud services. In an earnings call in November, Tencent CEO Martin Lau stated that he expected the Chinese government to promote the development of metaverse technology, with rules tailored to the Chinese market.
(Surce:www.cnbc.com)
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