NetEase leverages gaming prowess to tap into metaverse

Chinese internet heavyweight NetEase is leveraging its technological prowess on proprietary 3D game engines and other advantages that it has accumulated over its past two decades of experience in games development to better tap into the metaverse, a senior company executive said.

Hu Zhipeng, senior vice-president of NetEase Inc, one of China's leading internet and online game services providers, said most companies define metaverse in a way that fits their own visions or capabilities.

When it comes to NetEase, the company has leveraged the know-how it has accumulated in gaming and naturally extended it to more applicable fields that encourage interconnected experiences. "NetEase Yaotai, an immersive virtual event platform, is an epitome of this exploration," Hu said in an online discussion about the metaverse with Matthew Ball, a venture capitalist and veteran metaverse luminary.

The conversation took place on Yaotai and was made public on Wednesday. The discussion revolved around a variety of topics such as the widely-debated definition of metaverse, an emerging phenomenon that aims to build the next internet, how it could revolutionize people's life and the necessary breakthroughs for it to be fully realized. In the dialogue, the two shared their thoughts on its potential applications such as education, healthcare and engineering construction.

NetEase said when supported by artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other technologies, Yaotai has enabled a more interactive video conferencing experience where users can walk around and start conversations in their dressed-up avatars, and participate in conferences, exhibitions and a whole host of other events. First launched in 2020, NetEase Yaotai has held nearly 200 virtual events, serving multiple clients including universities, institutions and corporations and hosting nearly 100,000 users from over 100 countries and regions.