China Mobile unveils the Metaverse industry alliance, collaborates with tech titans like Huawei & Xiaomi

China Mobile, one of the major Chinese telecommunications companies and a Chinese estate-owned corporation, has created a Metaverse industrial association with 24 founding members, including tech titans Huawei, Xiaomi, and Unity China.

During the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in China, a global tech event being hosted between 28-30 June, 2023, China Mobile made a significant announcement in Shanghai.

They officially launched the China Mobile Metaverse industry alliance, signifying a major step forward in their strategic entry into the rapidly growing Metaverse domain. It aims to strengthen partnerships in the development of Metaverse content, extended reality (XR) terminals, computing networks, and technical research.

The inaugural event of the China Mobile Metaverse Industry Alliance was marked by the participation of notable members, including Mango TV, iFlytek, BrightWeb, Unity China, HTC, Haima Cloud, and Nolo VR. These members joined in the establishment ceremony, which represented the first-ever algorithmic network ecosystem alliance dedicated to the Metaverse.

China Mobile's commitment to Metaverse projects

According to a local digital news source called The Paper, Liu Xin, general manager of China Mobile's digital content company Migu Culture Technology, has purportedly been named the alliance's chief secretary for the project.

Liu said on Wednesday that the alliance will establish an investment fund under China Mobile to support its members' Metaverse activities. In addition, he stated that during the following three years, the corporation expects its financial commitment to Metaverse projects to be three times larger.

The Future of XR Compatibility begins with GSXR

China Mobile unveiled the ‘General Standard for XR’ (GSXR) last week, which is said to be the country's first industry standard for XR compatible devices. The introduction of the Metaverse industrial alliance comes with a rise in demand for the Metaverse in China, where many cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, and Hangzhou, issued Metaverse plans or regulations in 2023.

Although Tencent and Baidu, two prominent Chinese digital giants, closed their Metaverse operations earlier this year, the Metaverse continues to be a significant area of interest for local companies. In May, Migu, a subsidiary of China Mobile, announced its plans to establish a Metaverse headquarters in Xiamen city. Similarly, iFlytek, an artificial intelligence company and a founding member of an alliance, recently set up an XR and Metaverse lab in Guangzhou.

China Mobile is actively involved in pioneering technologies such as blockchain, Metaverse, and web3. Meanwhile, in April 2023, China Mobile International took the lead in establishing the Hong Kong Web 3.0 Institute. The institute aims to enhance Hong Kong's position as a crucial hub for the development of Web 3.0 and the Metaverse, thereby increasing its prominence in these domains.