- The sources revealed that China’s Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) announced to their staff on Monday the official formation of an “extended reality” (XR) unit.
- The unit is assigned to create the extended business for Tencent including both hardware and software.
- Eventually, the unit would expand to over 300 staff. Li Shen, the Chief Technology Officer of Tencent Games will lead the unit.
On Monday, China’s Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) officially stamped the Metaverse concept of virtual worlds. The company informed its staff about the official formation of an “extended reality” (XR) unit, according to the sources.
The sources further revealed that the unit is assigned to develop the extended business for Tencent. It includes both hardware and software. Further, it is announced that Li Shen, the Chief Technology Officer of Tencent Games will be heading the unit in addition to being a part of the Interactive Entertainment business group of the company.
According to the two sources, the unit ultimately would expand to having more than 300 staff. The figure seems like a decent one taking into account the fact that Tencent has slowed down hiring and has also seen cutting costs. But the company also said the plans regarding hiring are still fluid since the company would be adjusting the headcount of the unit on the basis of its performance.
As per the sources, although the unit was created early this year, it remained a secret. The extended reality which is considered the building block of the metaverse is referred to as immersive technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality
An official comment from Tencent, the most valuable company in China, has yet to come.
Since Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Platforms Inc (META.O), formerly Facebook, made the announcement that he will dedicate the future of his company to building a metaverse, entrepreneurs, investors, and tech giants around the globe have become obsessed with the concept of the Metaverse.
Big companies such as Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Disney (DIS.N) too have announced that they will be working on their own Metaverse. Meanwhile, Chinese and U.S. firms including ByteDance, the owner of TikTok to Apple (AAPL.O) are also developing their headset units involving XR technologies.
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Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/06/21/tencent-officially-starts-work-on-metaverse-announces-extended-reality-unit/