On Monday, Tencent announced that it had begun testing the “virtual room” Music Zone on its QQ Music app as well as a non-fungible token (NFT), profile picture (PFP), and avatars. These NFT PFP avatars are two-dimensional animated figures based on Zhixin Chain, a blockchain developed by Tencent. Additionally, QQ Music will introduce the “Music Zone” virtual room feature, allowing users to invite friends’ avatars as guests and listen to music in the same space. Before formal sales begin Wednesday morning, Android phone users may already test the PFP NFT feature and the virtual room as of Monday, according to a post from Tencent’s official QQ music account. Each PFP costs 0.88 yuan ($0.13) and has an entire production run of 40,000 copies. QQ Music is the second most popular music app in mainland China in 2021, with over 275 million monthly users. Tencent Launched XR Unit to Develop ‘Benchmark’ VR Products Tencent had established an extended reality (XR) business, citing Steven Ma, senior vice president of the Chinese tech giant’s Interactive Entertainment Group gaming division (IEG). Over the next four to five years, Tencent will create “benchmark” goods for virtual reality (VR) experiences, according to Ma, encompassing software, game content, operating systems, software development kits, and hardware. As reported by unnamed sources cited by Reuters, the department is anticipated to grow to 300 employees. According to Chinese ...
