2QQ Medicine of , Ticket of Tencent

source ： Alphabet （ID：wujicaijing） author ： Yan Fei

After groping for a year and a half , The outline of Tencent yuan universe is becoming clearer ,QQ“ Family bucket ” Become a new bridgehead .

7 At the beginning of ,QQ Music in a small range “Music Zone”（ Traxxpad ）. This function is a virtual interactive community with music theme , Users can set virtual human image , Dress up the virtual room , And listen to songs with friends 、 Play virtual instruments 、 Participate in virtual activities .

This is not QQ Music first dabbled in the concept of meta universe . This year, 4 month ,QQ Music on line VR（ Virtual reality ） Album , Users can watch in a virtual space MV, And chat and interact with other virtual people .

QQ Also doing the exploration related to the meta universe , And take a bigger step .

last year 11 End of month , mobile phone QQ Start testing “ Super QQ Show ”. With the help of illusion 4 engine , Users can AI Pinch your face 、 Custom expressions , Generate more realistic virtual human , Participate in various virtual activities ; In addition, virtual rooms have been launched “ Caveolae ”, Users can buy and use all kinds of virtual furniture .

QQ The above two new functions of the family do not call themselves meta universe , And still through mobile phones rather than VR The device has reached the . But obviously , Super QQ Xiuhe Music Zone They all have many key elements of the metauniverse .

Tencent is in the brand IP We are also prepared . Sky eye information display , By the end of this year 6 End of month , Tencent has applied for hundreds of Yuan universe trademarks , Include “QQ Meta universe ” and “QQ Music meta universe ”.

Tencent's layout around the underlying technology of the meta universe is very early , But it has not publicly raised the flag of the meta universe , The results are not much .

VR Technology is regarded as one of the cornerstones of the meta universe , It is also the first step for Tencent to enter this track .2015 year , Tencent formulated VR Software and hardware development plan , Including head mounted display 、 Software development kit and developer support plan . But under various delays , Tencent until 2018 The first model was shown in VR equipment TenVR, It ended in nothing .

Over the next few years ,VR The upsurge receded rapidly , Tencent has also done much less in this regard . until 2020 end of the year , Ma Huateng proposed in the company's annual magazine “ Quanzhou Internet ” The concept of , Call it “ Exciting opportunities ”, And warn “ Another big shuffle is about to begin …… Those who can't get on the boat will gradually fall behind ”.

Ma Huateng thinks , Quanzhen Internet means online and offline integration , And the integration of physical and electronic means . Although the Quanzhen Internet cannot be equated with the meta universe , But its connotation and constituent elements obviously have a lot in common .

At that time, Tencent held many good cards , Especially American sandbox game developers 、“ The first strand of the meta universe ”Roblox. Tencent is more than Roblox Shareholders , Also got the exclusive agency in China , It went online very early Roblox Domestic version of Robles .

However , In version number 、 Under the influence of multiple factors such as supervision , Robles is in an awkward situation , It has not been officially launched yet . On the other hand , Tencent tried to buy domestic VR Equipment head manufacturer Pico, Unexpectedly, it was truncated by ByteDance .

2021 year 11 month , Liu Chiping, President of Tencent, said on the earnings conference call , Tencent has a large number of technologies and capabilities to explore and develop the meta universe . This statement once again stimulated the speculation of the outside world about Tencent's metauniverse .

At the time , Liu Chiping did not elaborate on how Tencent would do metauniverse . But in the same month , Super QQ Show start internal test ,QQ The music then follows , Tencent focuses on QQ The idea of ecological creation of the prototype of the meta universe has surfaced .QQ This veteran , It has become the main attacker of Tencent for tickets in the next era .

A

Tencent selected QQ Sing the leading role , It reflects its new understanding of the growth path of the meta universe .

2021 Years ago , The concept of metauniverse is limited to science fiction and film and television works , The technology circle is not interested in it . And Tencent is in. VR、 Sandbox games and other fields of exploration , The target points to the specific business in the segmented field , Instead of going straight to the meta universe .

for example , tencent 2015 Around the year, through self-study and acquisition , Large scale layout VR, The goal is to be globally VR Get stuck as soon as possible in the tide , And in the game sector with Sony on the line PlayStation VR Game consoles compete .VR Its position in Tencent's strategic territory is not high , The resources available are very limited .

until 2021 Beginning of the year ,Roblox Processing “ Meta universe ” Concept , It is popular in the secondary capital market , It has attracted the attention of global technology companies and investment institutions . As an early shareholder , Tencent has achieved high financial returns at the same time , There is also a chance to re understand the value and imagination of the meta universe .

However , In the next year , Tencent has not made much progress ： Robles, who has high hopes, is struggling ,Pico The battle is overwhelmed by bytes . Put forward in Ma Huateng “ Quanzhou Internet ” The next year , Tencent's exploration in this direction has not achieved fruitful results , Instead, bytes 、 Baidu and other companies are booming .

But in the 2021 end of the year , Tencent seems suddenly enlightened . From super QQ Show start , Tencent changed its thinking , Try some basic ways to build a metauniverse directly in Social Networks .

This path conversion , Let Tencent jump out “ Set up the stage first 、 Sing again ” The traditional route , Temporarily bypass hardware research and development that you are not good at , Cut directly into the application layer of the metauniverse . Byte acquisition Pico The advantages of the moat formed have been partially eliminated , Tencent has a chance to overtake in the corner .

More to the point , Tencent's move resolved the social relationship chain problem that plagued the participants of the meta universe .

In the previous ideal model , The platform needs to build a good meta universe infrastructure 、 Inject users , Then provide all kinds of entertainment , Guide users to interact and build new social relationships . however , The current content ecology and use experience of metauniverse are far from enough to build high-frequency social scenes ; Want users to re-establish relationships outside traditional social networks , It's even more difficult .

under these circumstances , Tencent QQ Ecology as the entrance , Users can base on QQ The social relationship chain is brought into the metauniverse . for example , In super QQ Xiuzhong , Users can easily enter QQ Friends' virtual houses , And interact with it .

In addition to improving user retention and activity , It also reduces the opening cost , So as to expand the user base . Users use bytes 、 Baidu's meta universe service , Or buy VR equipment , Or download special APP; And super QQ Show just QQ One of the functional plug-ins , Users only need to upgrade APP Version can be used .

Tencent changed its course , Possible and Meta The demonstration effect of .

In super QQ More than a month before the show beta , Zuckerberg announced that he would Facebook Renamed Meta, And declare “ Take the meta universe first ”.Meta Bet on the meta universe , So that the flywheel effect of social networks and the meta universe has been widely concerned and explored ; At that time, Tencent made slow progress , Now that we have it, the stone of the mountain , You might as well use it to attack jade .

And Meta The world is different , Tencent social network actually contains two networks ： One is QQ, Mainly for teenagers , Scenes and labels tend to be entertaining ; The other is wechat , It covers a wider range of people , Social identity characteristics are more prominent .

Tencent chooses QQ, It's not surprising . Compared with wechat ,QQ The user portrait is younger as a whole , More willing to try new social interaction scenarios ; Besides , These young people are learning from 、 Universities move towards society , Its interpersonal network is in a rapid expansion stage , So that QQ Water testing metauniverse has a user base and growth space .

B

Except for injection QQ Social chain , Tencent also has new changes in the construction of Content Ecosystem . From super QQ Show to Music Zone, Tencent is trying to increase the UGC（ User made content ） content .

at present , Super QQ The functions of the show mainly include creating and dressing up virtual characters , Decorate and visit virtual rooms , Take photos with friends . Besides , Super QQ Show the traditional skills of Tencent games ： A chain of mission guidance , Match task rewards 、 Sign in reward 、 Krypton gold consumption and other incentives .

In super QQ In the virtual space of show , What users can have 、 What do you do , Basically limited by the system ; In addition, the operation method is too game oriented and stylized , Super QQ The primordial beauty of the show is slightly insufficient , It's more like a mobile game with the theme of changing clothes .

Launched a few months later Music Zone Still continue this set of play , But also trying to change . It can also create virtual human , Conduct various virtual interactions . But it adds the function of forming a virtual band with friends , Users can play musical instruments or “ Immersive disco ”. And super QQ Show compared to ,Music Zone A small step towards the user creation attribute of the metauniverse .

But at this stage , The user volume of metauniverse is very small , And face a high threshold of software and hardware technology , Count on the aborigines “ Use love to generate electricity ”, It is unrealistic to build a high-quality meta cosmic world brick by brick . For a long time to come , Large companies providing platforms will continue to be the main meta universe content providers .

For Tencent , stay QQ The provision of music listening and costume changing games in the metauniverse is just a test of the water . For how to build a meta universe Content Ecosystem , There are two clear routes for it ： One is to move pan entertainment content into the meta universe , The other is the meta universalization of Tencent games .

Count your lineages and allies , Tencent has abundant ammunition reserves in the cultural and entertainment sector ： Tencent music song , Long video of Tencent video , Well quickly 、 Short video of video number , Tiger tooth 、 Live broadcast of douyu , Reading online articles, etc .

Especially the film and television content , It has a high degree of agreement with the meta universe , Users are also easy to accept .QQ Music was introduced before VR Album , Choose the core top flow Jay Chou to test the water , The expectation of this new function can be seen .

On the other hand , Tencent executives publicly expressed their interest in the meta universe early last year . Maxiaoyi, senior vice president of Tencent, is receiving touch music 、 Game grapes and other media interviews said , In the future, the main lineup of the game industry will be 8~10 A top-level metauniverse product , Tencent will also explore this aspect .

Maxiaoyi also said , Metauniverse is a very long-term goal , Need to explore slowly , And many people need to participate in the process , Whether it's industry or players .

But the whole 2021 year , Tencent's actions in the meta universe are not many . Until this year 6 month , Tencent officially established XR（ Expanding reality ） department , And include it in the interactive entertainment business group in charge of the game business （IEG）, Tencent in metauniverse + Important progress has been made in the exploration of games .

at present , Games with meta universe tags at home and abroad mainly include 《 My world 》《 Fort night 》《Roblox》《 half-life ： Alex 》 etc. , Its core playing method is quite different from Tencent's current main products . It also means that , Tencent still has a long way to go before it really launches metauniverse Games .

C

Tencent takes the way QQ Be a meta universe , The immediate benefit is to let the declining QQ again “ Ramulus ” get up .

QQ It has passed so far 20 Years of history , Products and IP Aging , In recent years, users have been facing natural evaporation ： As you get older 、 Stepping into society , Many people give up QQ Switch to wechat ; Coupled with the reduction in the number of births ,QQ The shrinking number of users is inevitable . Only in 2021 year ,QQ Monthly active users have declined 7.2%, only 5.52 Billion .

For adults out of school ,QQ Instant messaging and social networks are wechat 、 nailing 、 Fly books and other alternatives , With QQ Xiuhe QQ The entertainment function with space as the core appears to be young , The whole product looks like chicken ribs .

With super QQ Show as the starting point QQ Meta universe , It is expected to resolve this contradiction . Its social function is inherited from QQ, But the entertainment function has been greatly improved , With the blessing of the concept of meta universe , Even adults don't seem too embarrassed to enter .

On the other hand ,QQ Based on the entertainment properties of the metauniverse , It can form a cross complement with wechat's work and life attributes , At the same time, they do not interfere with each other . This allows users to continue to use beyond wechat QQ Power .

At the level of industry competition ,QQ Metauniverse gives Tencent the opportunity to acquire an important weapon against byte metauniverse .

Among the three Internet giants in China today , Byte poses a greater threat to Tencent than Alibaba . Compared with Alibaba, which adheres to the main business of e-commerce , Bytes go along the content track and occupy the city , Except in the short video segment, Tencent is difficult to parry , Some business branches have touched the basic market of Tencent .

Especially around 90 The sky high purchase price of billion yuan VR Equipment company Pico after , The potential contradiction between byte and Tencent further intensifies .

By way of Pico To incur under his command , Byte content library gets a new output port . Bytes will be Ren Lifeng 、 Songbinghua, wuzuomin and other veterans transferred to Pico, And Tiktok VR Put it in Pico VR Prominent position of glasses ; meanwhile , It's also for Pico Introduced Disney 、 SONY 、 Hundreds of universal and other film companies 3D Blockbuster , Held by Zheng Jun and other musicians VR The concert , Byte's virtual idol group A-SOUL Also settled Pico.

Picture source ：Pico Official website

For bytes that are good at content , These actions are reasonable ; But bytes try in Pico Build a meta universe social network inside , Start to directly touch Tencent's basic disk .

6 late ,Pico newly added “ Good friends ” function , Friends added by users through functions such as virtual cinema are summarized , Integrate into a computer version of wechat VR Application . Users can set the status 、 Modify nickname 、 Share business cards 、 Send voice or text messages , Or open a room group to chat 、 Play a game .

A few days later , Bytek bought another company called PoliQ Startup company , The latter mainly does two-dimensional virtual social networking . The founder of the company, Majes, once worked in Xiaomi , Launched a model called “ Rice world ” Social products . Byte grabs the beach, and the wild prospect of meta universe social networking is emerging .

however , Social interaction is the weakness of byte meta universe , It is the armor of Tencent yuan universe .

Pico Social actions , The basic logic is still to build interaction from different scenes of the metauniverse 、 Build network . But based on VR The relationship between games or movie watching , It is a typical weak social relationship , Users don't know the real situation of other virtual people , It's not just necessary to continue socializing outside the scene .

by comparison , Super QQ Xiuhe Music Zone from QQ Get ready-made social relationship chain directly in the ecosystem . This kind of relationship chain is largely based on interpersonal exchanges in reality , Like family and friends 、 Classmates, teachers, etc , Know each other better , More frequent interaction , And it will not break as the scene disappears .

Plus QQ Advantages of user volume , Tencent is significantly stronger than byte meta universe in social attributes . To a certain extent, this makes up for Tencent's entry opportunity and VR Short board in terms of software and hardware , Provide a basis for the next counterattack .

In the long run , By laying out the metauniverse , Tencent will have a chance to jump out of the short video competition , Step into the next river .

Short video is Tencent's biggest miscalculation in the second half of the mobile Internet . Although video numbers have developed rapidly in the past two years , But everyone knows , It is almost impossible for a video number to replace Tiktok .

A major feature of Internet competition is , It is usually the barbarians outside the door who defeat the boss , Not the second and third of the same track . Just like Tencent Weibo and Sina Weibo many years ago , Video numbers may dominate in some indicators in the future , But the one who laughs to the end is probably Tiktok . Ma Huateng's victory in Tiktok has been decided 2020 Put forward at the end of the year “ Quanzhou Internet ”, In fact, it also reflects the default for the short video pattern , And the thinking of misplaced competition .

With the help of QQ The chain of social relationships , Tencent has found its own value anchor in the yuan universe circuit , For the first time with bytes 、Meta Wait for the company to pull the wrist . meanwhile , The basic way it plays in the meta Universe competition , Can also return to better “ social contact + Traffic ” Two wheel drive model , Instead of continuing VR And other hardware fields .

stay QQ After becoming a key player , The tactics and Strategies of Tencent yuanuniverse began to take shape . In this new river whose value and prospect are still controversial , Tencent has finally found a cornerstone to stand on .