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Baidu searches for “Zepeto” have grown rapidly over the last week, from just under 4, 000 on November 28 to more 150, 000 hitson Tuesday (November 4). On Weibo, the hashtag #玩zepeto停不下来# (“can’t stop playing Zepeto”) has been read a hundred million times. Weibo hashtag #zepeto打不开# (“can’t open Zepeto”) has been trending too, with close to 72 million readers.
According to apost on an official Zepeto Weibo account, at least some technical difficulties can be traced to the recent boom in popularity of the app. An influx of new people to the platform has caused servers to stutter, leaving would-be users staring at startup screens.
Blackpink To Hold
To address the issue, the Korean company behind the app plans to release a China-specific version by the end of December. Official versions of the app are currently only available on the App Store and Google Play, which is banned in China.
The Korean-developed app previously created a sensation in the US and other parts of Asia before landing in China. It even caused some panic online after unsubstantiated rumors arose that the app was tracking users’ locations. (Zepeta’s privacy policy states that it can share non-identifying personal data with third parties, but doesn’t appear to track location.)
Zepeto’s premise is simple enough. The app is free to download, but rewards users for watching ads or making purchases. Its format–allowing avatars to meet randomly or through chat rooms, and take virtual selfies with friends–is not unique, but it does feature youth-friendly dance moves and wardrobe options.
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Although the app doesn’t seem particularly tailored towards Chinese users, the company behind it–Snow Corporation–is a subdivision of Korea’s Naver, which created the popular Asian messaging app Line. This past January, Snow also received $50 million in investment from China’s Sequoia Capital as well as Softbank Group.
Snow’s namesake selfie app, a former SnapChat competitor, has also previously partnered with Chinese startup SenseTime to create virtual features like a pair of AR sunglasses.
Zaizai, the Chinese version of Zepeto, will launch by the end of this year as a separate entity from the international app. Existing users will be given the chance to transfer their information. Following its launch, the global app will no longer operate in mainland China.
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Bailey Hu is based in China’s hardware capital, Shenzhen. Her interests include local maker culture, grassroots innovation and how tech shapes society, as well as vice versa. More by Bailey HuSouth Korean metaverse platform Zepeto rectly received $150 million investmt from SoftBank, and $41 million from HYBE, the manager of famous K-pop group BTS, according to aWall Street Journal report.
Launched in 2018, Zepeto is an app by South Korean internet giant Naver's Corp. The app features cartoon-like customizable avatars, letting users create their own Zepeto idtity, voice chat, and interact with each other. According to Naver, the metaverse social app currtly has 2 million daily active users worldwide, with China and Indonesia being the biggest markets.
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Briefly after the app's initial launch, it quickly surged to the top of daily downloads ranking on both Apple and Android app stores in China, according to App Annie. For most, Zepeto's appeal lies in its novelty, yet for Chinese users, Zepeto's resemblance to Tct's Qzone gives it additional nostalgia value.
According to Naver, 70% of Zepeto's users are young females aged 13 to 24. To specifically cater to users' needs, Zepeto has introduced virtual fashion to its platform. There are currtly1.5 billion virtual fashion items, including clothing, makeup, and accessories, for sale on Zepeto, including works by luxury brands such as Gucci, Dior, and Ralph Laur. Zepeto also features selected clothing by popular celebrities such as BlackPink, SOMI, Sunmi, and Sela Gomez. Fans can dress up as their favorite singer or actress, or ev meet their idols, as Zepeto has heldfan meetings within the platform.
For aspiring fashionistas, Zepeto can also be a source of income. As the dress-up function within the app became popular, users have be able to design and sell virtual clothing for real-world money. It is possible to earn thousands of dollars per month by selling clothing designs on Zepeto, according to WSJ's interview with Zepeto user ZDE.
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Zepeto is couraging the thriving ecosystem evolving around fashion. Last month, Zepeto partnered with fashion school Istituto Marangoni Miami (IMM), offeringa $50, 000 scholarship program, with hopes that it will attract studts to devote themselves to virtual fashion.
Zepeto's ambition did not stop at building a small-scale, niche social app. Last month, it hosted a ceremony for the late South Korean national hero Kim Gu in its app, according toa report by the Korea Herald. In addition to creating a Kim Gu avatar, Zepeto also replicated his residce in collaboration with the Seoul Museum of History, for Zepeto users to tour.
To keep up with the rect NFT hype and further strgth its brand image as a virtual platform, Zepeto collaborated with Japan's social networking app LINE tolaunch a series of non-fungible tokslast week, featuring Zepeto's popular virtual site Cherry Gard World.
New World Notes: Eyes On Zepeto, South Korea's Rising Metaverse Competitor To Roblox
As tech companies worldwide have painted a picture of a limitless virtual digital world that is the metaverse, Zepeto isn't the first metaverse related company that SoftBank gave its vote of confidce to. In early November, SoftBank led a$93million investmt round for Sandbox, an online game platform based in Hong Kong. In September, SoftBank led a$680 million financing round for Paris-based online soccer game maker, Sorare.
We believe that the metaverse has the pottial to be the next evolution of the internet, said Greg Moon, managing partner at SoftBank Investmt Advisers, the technology group's London-based subsidiary that manages SoftBank's Vision Fund 2.You might have noticed that many young Chinese people replaced their profile photos overnight with a 3D portrait of themselves and have begun sharing virtual selfies with their friends. But without any obvious watermarks or branding, this whirlwind trend has left people puzzled about what app everybody is using.
The answer is Zepeto, a S. Korean app that uses facial recognition to create virtual avatars. The app has been number one on the free downloaded apps chart on the Chinese Apple Store over the past few days, and become the hottest trend among Chinese millennials along the way.
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The app, designed by S. Korea's Snow Corporation, was a sensation in the U.S. and Asia before it landed in the Chinese market, and in it you can also take selfies and groufies with your friends, strangers and even some celebrities, such as members of K-pop group BTS and American singer Ariana Grande.
Users can simply log in the app via their WeChat, Facebook and Twitter accounts and easily create avatars of themselves thanks to the facial recognition software, and then edit almost everything, including facial contours, hairstyles, makeup, clothes and even the decorations in the background of the photo.
However, it isn't simply an image editing tool. Users need gold coins – the only virtual currency in the game – to buy those hairstyles, outfits and furniture, and the fancier the item, the more expensive it is. The app gives a certain amount of gold coins to each user daily, but if you want to buy those products without saving for days, you can also buy the virtual currency with real money. A standard of the mobile game format.
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Like other apps that are popular with China's youth, Zepeto features social networking options, such as chatrooms for friends or meeting new people, an emoji creator and the ability to like other people's snaps in a manner similar to Instagram and Facebook.
These options have reminded people of Qzone, a Tencent-backed Chinese social networking platform, which shares some similar features with Zepeto, but is no longer popular, partly because it only creates 2D images.
In fact, Zepeto's immense popularity has caused servers to overload, significantly slowing the creation and sharing process. In a bid to curb the issue, the Snow Corporation said they plan to release a an exclusive Chinese version of the app before the end of the year. But, considering how fast trends come and go in China, even that may be too little too late.
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