Tencent Holdings hopes the Chinese government will allow it to develop Metaverse services which follow national regulations, Reuters reported on Thursday.
The Chinese tech giant’s top executive stated in a third-quarter earnings conference call it welcomed the rising platform, but would need to adjust it for Chinese rules.
Martin Lau, President of Tencent, said in the call,
“There’s a lot of technologies that’s related to the development of games as well as for the metaverse […] In terms of our capabilities and positioning, we feel we have a lot of the technology and know-how building blocks for us to explore and develop for the metaverse opportunity”
He added the Chinese government would “be in support” of mainland tech firms developing the platform “as long as the user experience is actually provided under the regulatory framework.”
Explaining further, Lau stated Metaverse firms in China may follow different mainland and global regulations, which would not be “fundamentally adverse” to the platform’s development.
According to the company president, Metaverse enterprises could develop “multiple pathways” via online games or social networks.
Chinese Tech Competition, Crackdowns
To date, Tencent owns 40 percent of Epic Games, the creator of 3D content and gaming platform Unreal Engine, and holds a joint venture with Roblox Corp, Reuters noted, adding the massive company also registered more than 20 Metaverse patents for apps in China.
The comments after Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s Chief Executive and Founder, announced in August Facebook would shift to becoming a “Metaverse company,” and later rebranded the enterprise in late October as Meta Platforms Inc to reflect its future plans for the Internet successor.
The news triggerd a wave of competition from rival firms Microsoft, Disney, NVIDIA, Nextech AR, and others to develop similar solutions and sparked massive interest in the new communications platform.
Despite growing interest from Chinese tech giants, the nation’s Metaverse ambitions could face additional tech crackdowns after Beijing said it would penalise Tencent and other mainland tech firms with strict penalties in September, citing a lack of interoperability between platforms.
Additional Chinese tech companies have been hit with shakeups as they expanded to compete in the growing Metaverse. ByteDance Chairman Zhang Yiming recently stepped down and the company stated it planned to relocate its headquarters to Hong Kong amid a massive company restructuring, just weeks after the firm acquired VR headset maker Pico Interactive.
