Chinese giant Baidu announces its first metaverse platform

One of the biggest Chinese technology conglomerates, Baidu, announced the launch of a product aimed at the metaverse.

This is the first time that a large Chinese company has officially announced its entry into the metaverse. In the case of Baidu, the product will be called “Hirang” and will even host, on December 27, Baidu Create 2021.

According to the company, the APP “Hirang” is the first “domestic metaverse” product. It creates a permanent multi-person interactive space that spans the virtual world and reality.

“Hirang is currently our metaverse and is still in the early stages. Its development is gradual, there will still be plenty of time to build and mature the project. But we will do this together with our entire community,” said Baidu Vice President Ma Jie.

Hirang

Also according to Jie, the first version of Hirang also has a name – 希壤 – (Greek soil, in literal translation). The app is now available on the Apple Store and Huawei Store.

Users can already use the app for social media interactions, voice messages, smart assistant, gesture operation, etc.

However, the initial release of Baidu’s metaverse app does not rate well in the app market. Internet users on the App Store give a score of 2.6. Meanwhile, Huawei’s app market has a score of 2.5.

Internet users complain mainly about the concept, in addition to many bugs.

According to Baidu, the immersive real-time experience of the metaverse and the interaction of multiple people in the same space requires a great deal of computing power, algorithm support, and a large amount of R&D investment.

“Therefore, technical strength will become the key to the future in metaverse competition. In the process of exploring the next generation of the Internet, Baidu’s effort is to become a metaverse engine, providing AI and cloud computing capabilities for metaverse products,” he said.