Image by Tech in Asia’s Andre Gunawan.
Alibaba today announced that it is taking virtual reality seriously: it’s launching a service specifically to promote VR-related hardware and software, and it will emphasize VR content on its existing platforms.
This announcement comes hot on the heels of Sony launching its own VR setup, and of Oculus announcing the development of 30 new titles for its platform.
Dubbed GnomeMagic Lab, the program will coordinate with other branches of the Alibaba empire. This will include setting up a marketplace for physical VR devices, software, and 3D models while also pushing VR content on Alibaba-owned media channels like Youku Tudou.
VR shopping experience
Albaba has big hopes for virtual reality in the long-term. The company plans to create the world’s largest product gallery of 3D images to be used by VR developers, and it even wants to bring its ecommerce empire into the world of virtual reality.
Users will be able to shop on Fifth Avenue in New York while still sitting at home.
According to Zhao Haiping, an Alibaba engineer who worked on developing the platform, “VR technology can create an immersive shopping experience for users.”
“Perhaps in the near future, users will be able to shop on Fifth Avenue in New York, while still sitting at home,” he says.
But that’s getting a bit ahead of where we currently are. At the moment, the Alibaba program is seeking to create an online marketplace for VR equipment, software, and the like – and if any company knows how to make an online marketplace work, it would be the company behind Taobao and Tmall.
Editing by Malavika Velayanikal
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