The Chinese Internet giants are rushing to the metaverse. Baidu, for its part, is fairly confident that its Metaverse app will take at least six years to fully launch. However, as the tech giant looks to explore further, it won’t add digital asset support to the app.
Baidu’s Metaverse World
While speaking at the “Create 2021,” Baidu’s annual developers’ event, Ma Jie, the company’s Vice President, shed some light on the timeline of its immersive digital world ‘XiRang.’ Although the application has been under development for over a year, it could take an additional six years to launch. According to Ma, XiRang is capable of hosting 100,000 virtual attendees.
With XiRang, Baidu intends to develop an open source platform for metaverse developers and build an infrastructure for a virtual world. The application is now accessible to developers, mainly in China.
Due to the stringent regulatory environment, the exec clarified that the app will not support digital currencies or the trading of assets associated with virtual properties.
The primary goal of Baidu’s approach to staying away from crypto assets is to comply with a barrage of new regulations. Indeed, the Chinese government is known for its crackdown on the monopoly practices of internet technology giants. Beijing’s one-year removal of tech players from the country has also prompted many to be cautious.
Chinese Tech Firms Embrace the Metaverse
China had imposed a fresh ban on cryptocurrencies this September, but there are no laws regarding metaverse yet. However, the state media has posted numerous articles on the subject that mostly consists of related scam risks.
The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) also recently issued a warning against the dangers of metaverse and NFT. That said, China’s position on the sector remains ambiguous, as CryptoPotato recently reported the launch of the country’s first metaverse industry group. Called – Metaverse Industry Committee, it is an organization that will operate under the supervision of the China Mobile Communications Association (CMCA).
The tech companies, on the other hand, are filing for metaverse trademarks at a rapid pace. A recent report by South China Morning Post revealed that over 1,360 homegrown firms had submitted 8,534 trademark applications related to the metaverse by December 19. Some prominent firms are- Baidu, NetEase Global, Alibaba, TENCENT, and Bytedance.
