Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings has announced personnel adjustments in its "extended reality" (XR) business, following a media report that the company was laying off staff in the unit.
Tencent, Asia's biggest internet company, denied the report that it planned to disband the business, saying it was making adjustments to some business teams as its development plans for hardware had changed.
The company had formed the unit in June last year with the aim of building up a business that would include software and hardware and spearhead Tencent's bet on the metaverse concept of virtual worlds. Extended reality, which refers to immersive technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality, is considered as the building blocks of the metaverse.
The metaverse became the new buzz word for investors and tech companies in 2021 after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg changed the company's name to Meta Platforms and said he would devote the company's future to building a metaverse.
According to Chinese tech outlet 36Kr, Tencent had notified the unit's more than 300 staff that they would be given two months to find new internal or external opportunities and that the unit would be disbanded. However, Tencent denied this claim, stating that it was making some personnel adjustments and that it would continue to pursue its XR business.
The move by Tencent to focus on extended reality and the metaverse concept reflects the growing interest among technology companies in these areas. The metaverse is expected to be a virtual world where people can interact with each other in real-time, using virtual and augmented reality technology. The concept has the potential to revolutionize social interaction, e-commerce, gaming, and other areas.
Tencent's move into hardware and extended reality also indicates its willingness to diversify its business beyond its core strengths in software and social media applications. The company has been investing heavily in gaming and social media, but it recognizes the potential of extended reality and the metaverse as the next big thing in the tech world.
Despite the media reports, Tencent's commitment to its XR business remains unchanged, and the company is expected to continue to pursue its development plans in this area.
As technology companies race to build the metaverse, it will be interesting to see how Tencent's extended reality business will fare in this new and exciting frontier of the tech world.
(Edited by : Soham Shetty)
