Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent has filed a patent application for virtual concerts with the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), according to Qichacha’s business data tracking system. The app comes at a time when Chinese companies are seeking to protect Metaverse’s trademarks.
Despite the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) taking a hard line on the Metaverse and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) in November, saying it would track them with anti-money laundering tools, more than a thousand Chinese companies have submitted more than 16,000 Metaverses. .according to Chinese news agency The Paper.
Despite warnings, Chinese multinational tech and video game colossus Tencent has spearheaded China’s assault on the Metaverse.
According to the South China Morning Post, sources say that Tencent sent an internal letter to its employees last October about the establishment of a new Formula 1 studio under the TiMi Studios subsidiary, which will include employees from China, the United States, Canada and Singapore.
On December 31 last year, Tencent held China’s first Metaverse virtual concert, a New Year celebration called TMELAND, which was joined by over 1.1 million fans during the festival. Tencent also acquired Los Angeles concert animation company Wave, which uses motion capture technology to create realistic virtual concerts.
Celebrate 2022 at #TMELAND, China’s first virtual #MusicFestival. Enjoy #NYE music from your sofa as your #avatar meets world famous DJs and artists with other party goers. Immerse yourself in the world through #QQMusic, #WeSing and other Tencent Music apps. Happy #NYE2022 pic.twitter.com/hLrqvjX1Yn — Tencent 腾讯 (@TencentGlobal) December 31, 2021
In the past, wave concerts have been hugely successful, and during the pandemic, their popularity has risen as a new way for musicians to interact with fans. When The Weeknd used Wave services to livestream a virtual concert on TikTok last August, it attracted close to 2 million viewers worldwide and raised $350,000 for the Equal Justice initiative.
It remains to be seen whether local regulators will influence the ambitions of the Chinese multinational corporation. Speaking at the National Financial Security Summit on November 26, Gou Wenjun, Director of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Division at the PBoC, warned of the dangers associated with emerging crypto ecosystem trends such as NFT and Metaverse. He argued that if these assets will not be regulated, they can be easily used for illegal purposes such as money laundering and tax evasion.
Related: China Central Bank Proposes Metaverse and NFT Tracking
People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, also issued a warning about the Metaverse as early as December 9, stating that “regulation, not innovation, should be encouraged.”
Despite ominous omens from the national media and state-owned banks, China has yet to provide any clarification regarding the relevant regulations.
