Metaverse: With XiRang, Chinese giant Baidu launches before Facebook – The HuffPost

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INTERNET – The race for the metaverse is on and Facebook, now renamed Meta, is not alone in wanting to conquer this new market, considered to be the next big leap in the evolution of the internet. The internet giant Baidu launched, this Monday, December 27 in China, one of the first applications of “Metavers”, during a “metaversal” conference in the presence of his boss Robin Li, in front of an audience of avatars.

Called XiRang (“Land of Hope”), it allows you to create a digital character and interact with other users in a 3D world. The application is accessible, only in China for the moment, on mobile phone, computer or virtual reality headsets. On XiRang, users are free to move around in the midst of fake natural settings or a fictional city, as you can see in the video below.

This digital backbone of the physical world, accessible via the internet, is still in its infancy. It should make it possible to free oneself from physical constraints by multiplying human interactions via 3D. As in real life, they can visit an exhibition (virtual) or a reproduction of the Shaolin temple – the Mecca of Kung fu – or even practice diving in a digital swimming pool.

Baidu was on this project long before the term metaverse became popular last October, after Facebook’s decision to rename its group Meta.

Like Baidu, the Chinese digital giants do not intend to stay on the sidelines of the metaverse. ByteDance (TikTok) has invested in several companies in the sector, including the maker of virtual reality headsets Pico.

Internet juggernaut Tencent works on its metaverse platform, backed by its experience in video games in which it is a major player. As for the Chinese e-commerce champion Alibaba, he created a subsidiary to reflect on the various opportunities offered by the metaverse.