Alibaba announced the development of augmented reality glasses specially dedicated to its DingTalk application. In particular, they will allow users to participate in virtual meetings, proof that the Chinese giant wants to have a role to play in the deployment of the metaverse.
The metaverse in the workplace
It was Ye Jun, chairman of DingTalk and vice chairman of Alibaba, who broke the news according to the South China Morning Post, taking over the Chinese media Beijing News. The firm thus plans to launch augmented reality glasses making work even more immersive, which will notably be equipped with optical functions that automatically adjust to prevent the wearer from having to put on eyeglasses in addition.
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In 2020, DingTalk, in collaboration with the Beijing-based startup Nreal, launched its first augmented reality glasses with the possibility of accessing a ” 3D virtual meeting room “. If this new model will be an improvement of it, the firm has not gone into more detail in relation to its various functionalities.
As a reminder, DingTalk is a professional messaging claiming more than 500 million users; it is one of China’s most popular business apps, and it aims to bring real business activities to the metaverse with its new gadgets. ” DingTalk will become the connection point between the digital world and the physical world, especially in the workplace “, Declared Ye Jun.
Alibaba has invested heavily in this sector for several years
This announcement from Alibaba makes sense. In October 2021, the e-commerce giant embarked on the metaverse race, considered the next iteration of the Internet, by notably registering three brands relating to this subject. In addition, the firm has accelerated its investments in the fields of augmented reality and virtual reality in recent years to the tune of $ 1 billion, and has for example bet on Magic Leap, an American startup specializing in augmented reality.
The augmented reality glasses from Magic Leap, a company in which Alibaba has invested. Photograph: Bram Van Oost / Unsplash
Damo Academy, Alibaba’s research institution, is also interested in the metaverse. The XR Lab, which depends on it, has designed a system capable of scanning an offline store and creating a virtual version for display on a mobile device, offering information on products and virtual sellers.
Chinese giants want their piece of the pie
If the big American techs are chaining the announcements relating to metaverse, with Meta (formerly Facebook) in the lead, the Chinese technological giants, which continue to prosper despite much stricter government regulation, do not intend to miss out on the Internet of future.
Alibaba is not the only company in the Middle Empire to be interested: while Tencent has invested in Wave, a company specializing in the organization of virtual concerts, ByteDance has acquired Pico, a company of virtual reality which is now worth $ 772 million. For its part, Baidu recently organized its very first virtual event within XiRang, the name given to its metaverse.