Baidu says it may take 6 years to roll out their metaverse

TL;DR Breakdown

• Baidu says it will hold its annual developers’ meeting next Monday through their metaverse application Xi Rang.
• On Tuesday, the Executive in charge of Xi Rang said that the company needs time to develop more features for their metaverse.

Baidu, a leading technology corporation in China, participates in the ongoing metaverse innovation. The company now claims that the metaverse is still in its early phases, and it may need about six years to roll out its entire iteration.

Chinese tech company Baidu to develop their metaverse in the future

Baidu, a tech company in China, now accepts that it will require at least six years to finalize its metaverse innovation. The company already has a metaverse application Xi Rang but believes it still needs more work.

The metaverse is a unique innovation where people interact through 3D infrastructure. Per Ma Jie, one of Baidu’s vice presidents, the Xi Rang app began development a year ago but still needs about six more years. However, Ma did not give further details regarding the development timeline.

The Xi Rang app will help the corporation conduct its annual developers’ meeting. According to Ma, this application can host 100,000 attendees. He added that Baidu targets to build a platform that is an open resource for all developers.

Per Brian Tycangco, an analyst at Stansberry research, the word metaverse is still too new to many. He noted that this innovation is still in its early stages of development, and the world may only come to understand it fully after three or five years.

He particularly noted that Baidu’s timeline describes the corporation’s unique approach to innovation. Baidu takes conservative steps towards introducing a proper technology solution without rushing carelessly. He also said that since China is very strict with crypto regulations, maybe Baidu is treading softly to watch the regulatory developments.

The metaverse rush continues

The metaverse is developing fast worldwide, and many technology companies are rushing to establish their iteration. Despite China banning cryptocurrencies and imposing strict rules, the metaverse is also growing. Tech heavyweights like Alibaba are already announcing their involvement in the metaverse. Alibaba’s official website advertises the company’s metaverse project. 

In November, the president of Tencent, Martin Lau, claimed that he expects China not to fight against the metaverse. Earlier this month, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates said that Microsoft might be moving its digital meetings to the metaverse in a few years.

Similarly, Facebook rebranded META, announced that people would soon access its metaverse, Horizon, freely. The company said that the citizens of the US and Canada would have the chance to tour the Horizon, but it will only allow 18+ people to enter it.

However, some authorities are keen on the metaverse to prevent a scam attack like what happened in the 2017 ICO bubble. Yesterday, Chinese officials uploaded an article about the metaverse. It also asked people to be cautious of possible scam attacks.