Alibaba takes its turn in the metaverse race

After Facebook and Tencent, comes Alibaba To declare his desire to develop the metaverse To allow Internet users to live new experiences in the virtual world. according to South China Morning NewspaperIn anticipation of the Chinese giant It has already registered three trademarks Ali Metaverse, Taobao Metaverse and Dingding Metaverse.

Tech giants rush into the metaverse zone

The metaverse was, for a few months, The topic that refreshes most of the giants of the web. Facebook gave an interesting definition. According to Andrew Bosworth, the group’s new CTO, it: “A group of virtual spaces where you can create and explore a virtual world with other people who are not in the same physical space as you. An opportunity to spend time with your friends, work, play, learn, shop, create and much more”.

Facebook is developing the metaverse and has decided to allocate a big budget to it: $50 million. In recent weeks, he also showed many Chinese startups Their interest in developing technology Allow to live experiences in the virtual world. Many of them, who specialize in virtual and augmented reality, have received significant investments. For its part, Alibaba decided to revitalize. Several brands associated with this project have been created.

Ali Baba, Tencent, ByteDance… the race continues

This is a direct reply to Tencent, the owner of WeChat. In fact, the Chinese giant did too Apply in September to register For 100 brands associated with the metaverse, including “QQ Metaverse”, “QQ Music Metaverse” or “Kings Metaverse”. Kuaishou and iQiyi platforms, as well as electric car maker Li Auto, have also registered their own brands in China. Evidence that the subject of interest …

The metaverse concept is definitely It first appeared in 1992 In the dystopian science fiction novel Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson. With the success of Ready Player One in 2018, a Steven Spielberg film based on the novel of the same name by author Ernest Klein, the idea of ​​creating a metaverse came to the fore. Began to appear in major technology companies. During the Covid-19 pandemic, everything has accelerated with virtual parties being held in Fortnite. Tencent Music has even invested in Wave, a virtual concert organization.

For its part, ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok and Douyin, has acquired Pico, a virtual reality company. Which now amounts to 5 billion yuan ($772 million). According to a recent report by Bloomberg Intelligence, the metaverse . sector can Weigh $800 billion by 2024…