As China Warms Up to the Metaverse, Who’s Building It?中國元宇宙升溫，誰是弄潮兒？

杰瑪·A.威廉姆斯 肖爽

Is the metaverse Chinese techs next battlefield？ An outpouring of companies looking to control virtual worlds means it could well be. From Tencent to Tmall and CryptoC Labs to Cishi Culture， businesses are shoring up1 their digital offerings as consumers on the mainland warm up to2 the metaverse， or virtual worlds.

The digital hyperconnectedness3 in China means that the lines between physical and virtual realities are already blurred. And， where Chinas biggest tech companies go， the market follows： Over 400 companies， including Tencent and Alibaba， have trademarked several terms related to the buzzword （such as “Ali Metaverse”）. Investment is flooding into the metaverse sector too; Beijings augmented reality technology company Nreal just completed a Series C funding round of over $100 million.

As interest in the metaverse as a term starts to ignite among citizens， the hashtag has 340 million views on Weibo. The Global Times reported that a six-episode online course about the metaverse costing a mere $4.69 has been signed up for by 40，000 people.

Tencent

Gaming giant Tencent owns 40 percent of Epic and has invested into Wave， a US virtual concert organiser， setting its ambitions clear. It has invested in the global gaming platform Roblox （where Gucci unveiled digital fashion）， while it also reported that its gaming studio， TiMi Studio Group， is assembling an international team to develop games for the metaverse.

Its NFT collector trading app “Magic Core” has attracted widespread attention from collectors. QQ Music， also a Tencent Group， plans to enter the NFT field and become the first music platform in China to issue digital collectibles NFT. Recently， to mark the companys 23rd anniversary， Tencent gifted a digital penguin NFT collection to more than 70，000 employees.

Baidu

Internet titan Baidu launched a metaverse app， called Xirang （“Land of Hope”）， which allows users to create avatar and chat with other participants. Xirang will incorporate additional features like online education and elements of digital marketing in the future. While efforts are fairly limited， visitors are already exploring three scenarios where art and the companys products collide.

NetEase

William Ding Lei， founder and chief executive of NetEase， Chinas second largest video gaming company said it will lead China into the metaverse. On an earnings call4 he said： “When the metaverse eventually arrives … well probably be the fastest runner around.” Apparently the Hangzhou-based company has already prepared the technol-ogies and strategies required to build it.81F69770-B60C-445C-A6A6-EA191ECEF075

Alibaba

The Chinas e-commerce group stepped into the metaverse in the run-up to5 Singles Day via Tmalls first-ever digital art gallery as part of the Luxury Pavilion. High-end brands like Balmain， Longines， Coach， La Perla， Burberry， and Emporio Armani were curated by Tmalls virtual influencer， AYAYI. Even its C2C6 platform is tapping the trend. For “520，” which is another Valentines Day celebration in China， Taobao offered consumers the opportunity to virtually dress their own Taobao Life avatars in designs from the likes of Prada， Hugo Boss， Alexander McQueen， and Net-a-Porter.

Bytedance

For Bytedance， its about foregrounding7 a focus on Virtual Reality which has broad application prospects in gaming， online social networking， and fitness. It acquired VR headset maker Pico in August， and at the time， a spokesperson said the company will focus on developing consumer-facing VR devices for the Chinese market after the acquisition. Pico， located in Beijing， is Chinas biggest domestic headset provider. Chinas AR market is expected to grow 68 percent over the next five years.

And the others…

Chinas big telecoms carriers are also laying out plans to feature the metaverse： China Mobile， China Unicom， and China Telecom all partnered with several tech companies to form Chinas first industry group dedicated to the metaverse. At the founding of the “Metaverse Industry Committee，” the telecoms leaders announced plans to leverage8 their advantages in 5G network infrastructure， cloud gaming， and virtual reality （VR） technologies.

JD Technology， the tech arm of JD.com， announced it will offer free non-fungible token （NFT） badges to users registered for the companys annual tech summit. This is the first time JD.com is launching NFTs， which are based on the companys blockchain engine， JD Chain.

Virtual idols

China already has a list of virtual figures on social platforms which are grabbing Gen-Z9s attention; Luo Tianyi has over 5 million fans， while virtual beauty blogger Liu Yexis and related topics on Douyin have exceeded 160 million views. Moreover， Shanghai-based Ranmai Tech is a leading player in this sector and has developed many realistic digital people such as AYAYI， whose first post had nearly 3 million views and 40，000 followers overnight on Xiaohongshu. AYAYI has become a hot topic on Weibo as the first super photoreal10 quality virtual human in China.

The Beijing media Company Cishi Culture has also been active in the virtual avatar world. It co-created Ling with Chinese artificial intelligence （AI） start-up Shanghai Xmov Information Technology. Cishi Culture has also created Florasis， the virtual persona for the C-beauty11 disruptor of the same name， and has collaborated with jewelry brand iDO. Bilibilis original virtual artist group VirtuaReal member “Azi” appeared at Shanghai Fashion Week， dressed in a tailor-made design for the virtual artist by the designer brand ZI II CI IEN.81F69770-B60C-445C-A6A6-EA191ECEF075

Community

CryptoC Labs is an NFT community that was developed to explore economic relationships between content creators and fans. It is now one of the most influential NFT communities in China， and in June it launched the crypto art gallery， WaveC. Chinese marketplace Treasureland auctioned a CNY sneaker from global digital fashion brand RTFKT for $28，000 earlier this year. Chinese social media and e-commerce network Xiaohongshu has launched its own NFT platform; it steers away from12 issuing tokens and allows users to directly purchase digital art using WeChat or Alipay.

SuperELLE is Chinas first media platform to enter the metaverse， announcing a partnership with BCA Technology and Art to create the SuperELLE Metaverse Space. Meanwhile young local talents are acting as a conduit for luxury names too. Hong Kong-based independent 3D artist Ruby Chan created Ruby Gloom， while London-based Stephy Fung has brought the qipao to life digitally—her designs can be bought from the virtual retailer site， DressX.

元宇宙會是中國科技的下一個戰場嗎？角逐虛擬世界的公司相繼涌現，想必答案是肯定的。元宇宙（即虛擬世界）日益受到中國大陸消費者的青睞，騰訊、天貓、C社、次世文化等企業也隨即紛紛提振其數字化產品。

在中國，“數字超鏈接”意味著物理現實與虛擬現實的界限已經模糊。而且，中國的科技巨頭走到哪里，市場就跟到哪里：騰訊、阿里巴巴等400多家公司紛紛搶注帶這個熱詞的商標名（如“阿里元宇宙”）。投資也大量涌入元宇宙領域：北京增強現實科技公司優奈柯恩剛剛完成C輪融資，金額超過1億美元。

隨著公眾開始對元宇宙一詞感興趣，該話題在微博的瀏覽量達到了3.4億。據《環球時報》報道，已經有4萬人報名參加一門6節課的元宇宙在線課程，課程售價僅為4.69美元。

騰訊

游戲巨頭騰訊雄心可鑒，不僅擁有英佩游戲40%的股份，還投資了美國虛擬音樂會初創公司Wave。同時，騰訊也參投了全球游戲平臺羅布樂思（古馳曾在該平臺發布過數字時裝秀），有報道稱其旗下游戲研發工作室天美工作室群正在組建一支國際團隊，致力于元宇宙游戲的開發。

騰訊的NFT（非同質化代幣）藏品交易軟件“幻核”吸引了藏家的廣泛關注。旗下的QQ音樂也計劃進軍NFT領域，打造國內首個發行數字藏品NFT的音樂平臺。近期，為慶祝公司成立23周年，騰訊給7萬多名員工贈送了企鵝形象的NFT數字藏品。

百度

互聯網大鱷百度上線了元宇宙應用“希壤”（意為“希望之地”），用戶可以創造虛擬形象并與其他玩家對話。未來，“希壤”還將融入更多元素，如在線教育和數字營銷。雖然功能還很有限，但在“希壤”開放的三個場景里，藝術與公司產品交融相遇，訪客已經踏上了探索之旅。

網易

中國第二大游戲公司網易的創始人兼首席執行官丁磊表示，網易將引領中國進入元宇宙。在一次財報電話會議上，他說：“當元宇宙最終到來時……我們可能跑得比誰都快。”看來這家杭州的公司已經在元宇宙的技術和規劃上做好了準備。

阿里巴巴

隨著天貓奢品頻道上線天貓首屆數字藝術展，這家中國電商在雙十一光棍節前夕也入局了元宇宙。天貓開發的虛擬偶像、超寫實數字人AYAYI為一系列高端品牌進行策展，包括巴爾曼、浪琴、蔻馳、拉佩拉、博柏利和阿瑪尼等。天貓的C2C平臺也緊跟元宇宙浪潮。在中國的另一個情人節“520”（5月20日）這一天，淘寶用戶有機會給自己的“淘寶人生”虛擬形象穿上普拉達、雨果博斯、亞歷山大麥昆和頗特女士等品牌的高檔服裝。

字節跳動

字節跳動意欲把發展虛擬現實擺在更突出的位置，因為虛擬現實在游戲、在線社交和健身方面有著廣泛的應用前景。2021年8月，字節跳動收購了VR頭顯制造商小鳥看看，當時一位發言人透露，收購之后公司將致力于為中國市場研發面向消費者的VR設備。北京小鳥看看科技有限公司是中國國內最大的VR頭顯供應商，而中國的AR市場預計在未來五年內增長68%。

其他企業

中國幾家大的電信運營商也在布局元宇宙：中國移動、中國聯通和中國電信均與多家科技公司展開合作，成立了國內首家元宇宙行業協會。在“元宇宙產業委員會”揭牌之日，這幾家電信運營商的領導表示，要充分發揮他們在5G網絡基礎設施、云游戲和虛擬現實技術方面的優勢。

京東集團旗下的技術業務子集團京東科技宣布，凡報名參加該公司年度技術峰會的用戶都可以免費獲得NFT徽章。此徽章是京東首次發布的NFT產品，基于京東區塊鏈引擎智臻鏈而創設。81F69770-B60C-445C-A6A6-EA191ECEF075

虛擬偶像

中國的社交平臺已經涌現出一系列圈粉Z世代的虛擬人物：洛天依坐擁500多萬粉絲，虛擬美妝博主柳葉熙和相關話題在抖音的瀏覽量超過了1.6億。此外，行業領頭羊上海燃麥科技打造了包括AYAYI在內的多個超寫實數字人。AYAYI亮相小紅書的首發帖閱讀量近300萬，一夜之間漲粉近4萬。作為中國第一個超逼真的照片級虛擬人，她已經成了微博的熱搜話題。

北京次世文化傳媒有限公司也一直活躍于虛擬人領域。該公司與人工智能創業公司上海魔琺信息科技有限公司共同研發了虛擬形象“翎”，為中國美妝破局者花西子打造了同名虛擬代言人，并與珠寶品牌iDO攜手合作。嗶哩嗶哩原創虛擬藝人團體VirtuaReal成員“阿梓”空降上海時裝周，身著由支晨設計師品牌為虛擬藝人量身定制的服裝。

社群

C社是一個致力于探索內容創作者和粉絲之間經濟關系的NFT社區，現已成為中國最具影響力的NFT社區之一，并在2021年6月孵化了加密藝術畫廊“風潮”。2021年早些時候，中國NFT交易平臺“金銀島”拍賣了國際數字潮牌RTFKT出品的中國新年款球鞋，成交價高達28000美元。中國社交媒體和電商平臺小紅書上線了自己的NFT平臺，但沒有發行代幣，而是允許用戶使用微信或支付寶直接購買數字藝術品。

作為中國首個進入元宇宙的媒體平臺，《欣漾SuperELLE》宣布攜手BCA科技藝術打造SuperELLE元宇宙空間項目。同時，本土新秀也助力奢侈品牌通往虛擬世界。香港獨立3D藝術家陳嘉渝創造了虛擬人物Ruby Gloom。而倫敦的Stephy Fung在數字世界里讓旗袍得以重生——她設計的服裝可在虛擬零售網站DressX訂購。

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者）

1 shore up支撐;加固;提振。? 2 warm up to對……更有興趣。? 3 digital hypercon-nectedness數字超鏈接，指依托數字技術鏈接交通、司法、政務服務等領域，從而推動一體化發展。

4 earnings call財報電話會議，是上市公司管理層、分析師、投資者和媒體之間的電話會議，討論公司在特定報告期（如一個季度或一個財年）的財務業績。? 5 in the run-up to在……前夕。? 6 = Consumer to Consumer消費者對消費者的電子商務模式。

7 foreground將……置于最顯著的位置。? 8 leverage利用。

9 Gen-Z Z世代，指1995年至2009年出生的人群。? 10 photoreal逼真的。? 11 = Chinese Beauty中國美妝。

12 steer away from遠離;避開。81F69770-B60C-445C-A6A6-EA191ECEF075