China’s largest telecoms provider, China Mobile, has established an industry alliance within the metaverse that comprises prominent names from the country’s technology sector. According to Shanghai Securities News (Chinese), China Mobile unveiled the China Mobile Metaverse Industry Alliance during the Mobile World Congress Shanghai.
During MWC in Shanghai, China Mobile unveiled the initial lineup of 24 alliance members. Notable participants include Huawei, Xiaomi, HTC Vive, Unity China, NOLO, XREAL (formerly Nreal), iFlytek (an AI company), MGTV (a video streaming platform), and Haima Cloud (a cloud streaming platform). The company referred to it as, “The world’s strongest metaverse circle of friends,” highlighting its ambition to create a strong network within the metaverse industry.
The primary goals of the alliance include enhancing the progress of metaverse development in China, fostering resource sharing to strengthen the collaboration among member companies, and cultivating a ‘Win-win concept’ aimed at sharing the new benefits arising from the digital economy.
Driving metaverse innovation
In addition, the company revealed a member alliance fund designed to provide support for metaverse projects, as well as research and development efforts related to hardware and XR content creation.
Speaking at a press conference, Zhao Dachun, deputy general manager of China Mobile said that the nascent metaverse space is a new opportunity for trillions of yuans and, “An important carrier to accelerate the construction of digital China and realise the digital economy.”
China Mobile is no stranger to such collaborations, having previously collaborated with HTC in 2018 to expedite the widespread adoption of 5G infrastructure and devices in China. The partnership aimed to facilitate HTC’s VR devices’ availability in a broader range of retail channels.
In 2021, China Mobile launched its XR interoperability standard named GSXR (General Standard for XR), which received support from several companies including Pico, Rokid, Oppo, Baidu, Tencent, China Telecom, and Skyworth.
The company’s streaming content subsidiary, Migu, has recently built a new ‘Metaverse Headquarters’ in Xiamen, China with a focus on leveraging 5G and XR technologies. Migu aims to contribute to the development of Xiamen as a, “High-quality, high-value, modern and international city with digital intelligence.”
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
