The metaverse has caused a lot of talk in 2022 and it seems that it will continue to do so in 2023. Alibaba, one of the giant marketplaces, is about to launch its own metaverse. In your case you will do it through Taobao In collaboration with hell.
It is not yet known when this new metaverse will come out, but the name has already been known: Tao Live City. For now, it is speculated that it will be released for the shopping day Chinese New Year which is celebrated on February 1st. This space was available to consumers in a timely manner in November for the ‘Double 11 Shopping Festival’.
TaoLive City Metaverse will have 8 stages and various live broadcast rooms, as explained by the Chinese newspaper DSB. Some of the spaces that have been built are the Central Station, Adventure Crystal Island, Commercial Avenue, Super Dazzling Ferris Wheel and Future Botanical Garden.
Users will be able to directly enter this virtual world using a virtual avatar. And with this they can go shopping, raffle prizes and interact with strangers. In addition, according to the images that have been leaked in the central square there are a screen with live broadcasts and you can buy live.
In recent years, Tmall Luxury Pavilion, Alibaba’s luxury shopping platform, has made various projects to enable 3D shopping, where people are allowed to shop through augmented reality and virtual reality. This is why some of the main brands that will participate in the metaverse are Tissot, fashion COSMO, Estee Lauder, La Mer or Great Wall Euler.
China and the metaverse
In China, as in many other parts of the world, the metaverse has gained increasing attention. According to a study of iimedia made in 2021, more than 60 percent of respondents expressed willingness to use the metaverse.
Also, the Chinese government has been one of the few to take an interest in the metaverse. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has gone so far as to publish a roadmap for VR development in 2018. And since 2021, the country has continued to support the integration of the virtual world with its real economy. .
Shanghai city government is the one that has gone the furthest, since it published a political document in which it presents its plans to cultivate a metaverse industry worth 350 billion yuan ($52 billion) by 2025.
One of the best-known metaverse platforms in China is Baidu’s XiRang, which has the same level of virtual immersion as American platforms like Facebook Horizons and games like Roblox and Minecraft, but doesn’t offer the customization that other metaverses do.
The problem with the metaverse in China is that Chinese censors can monitor chats between teammates in a multiplayer video game. In this way, they ensure that prohibited topics are not discussed in the country.