Chinese E-commerce Giant Alibaba Downsizing Metaverse Unit to Streamline Operations: Report
Inlinewithabroadertrendamongmajortechfirms,Chinesee-commercebehemothAlibabaisdownsizingitsmetaverseoperations. Therestructuring,whichaimstoimproveefficiency,ledtolayoffsinYuanjing,Alibaba’smetaverseunit,asthecompanyrecalibratesitsfocusinthissector. DownsizingMetaverseUnit AccordingtothereportbySouthChinaMorningPost,whichisalsoownedbyAlibaba,thismovehasaffected“dozens”ofemployees.ThelayoffsreportedlyimpactedYuanjing’soperationsacrossShanghaiandHangzhou,Zhejiangprovince’scapital. Theunitoncehadhundredsofemployeesandreceivedsignificantinvestmentsinthe“billionsofyuan.”Despitethereductionintheemployeecount,theunitwillstillremainactiveandwillshiftitsfocustometaverseapplications,tools,andcustomer-orientedmetaverseservices. Aspartofitsmetaverseefforts,Alibabaspearheadeda$60millioninvestmentroundinNreal,aChinesecompanyspecializinginaugmentedreality(AR)glasses. IndustryobserversbelievedthatAR,virtualreality,andmixedrealitytechnologieswouldserveastheprimarygatewaysforuserstoengagewithmetaverseplatformsinthefuture.Furthermore,Yuanjingdevelopedacloud-basedoperatingsystemthatfacilitatedtheuseofthemetaverseinvideogamesandvariousindustrialsectors. Lastyear,AlibabaCloud,abranchoftheChinesee-commercecompany,teamedupwithAvalanchetobuildalaunchpadforcompanieslookingtodeploytheirmetaverseapplicationsontheLayer1blockchain. FocusonAI Alibaba’sdecisiontoreduceitsmetaverseworkforcemirrorsthetrendamongotherleadingtechfirmsthatarescalingbacktheirinvestmentsintheonce-promisingsectorandreallocatingresourcestowardartificialintelligence(AI). InOctoberoflastyear,Facebook’sparentcompany,MetaPlatforms,laidoffemployeesfromitsFacebookAgileSiliconTeam,partofitsRealityLabsdivisiondedicatedtodevelopingcustomsemiconductors.Additionally,Baidu’smetaversehead,MaJie,departedinMayasthecompanyshifteditsfocusmoreheavilytowardAIfollowingthelaunchofChatGPTbyUSstartupOpenAI. Evenastheinitialhypebehindthesectorappearstohavewaned,datafromGlobalMarketsInsightssuggestthattheglobalindustrialmetaversemarketwasvaluedat$22.4billionin2023andisexpectedtoexpandatacompoundannualgrowthrate(CAGR)of29.5%from2024to2032. cryptopotato.com