China Dating App Yumi Delves Into the Metaverse
Contributed by: kellyseal on Wednesday, February 23 2022 @ 02:28 pm
Last modified on Wednesday, February 23 2022 @ 02:46 pm
China-based dating app Yumi has started beta testing experiences in its new metaverse, called Meta Town, hoping to attract young Gen Z daters who are interested in immersive experiences.
Users can create avatars based on their photos, explore the metaverse to find other virtual daters, and have real-time audio conversations with “artificial intelligence-powered translation,” according to the South China Morning Post[*1] , making it easier for daters who don’t speak the same language to connect.
The metaverse is a platform where people can interact via avatars in real time and in different virtual spaces, often with the ability to exchange virtual goods and services.
The U.S. is focused on the metaverse too, with Facebook changing its name to “Meta” to show its new focus and dating apps like Tinder and Bumble rushing to develop their own virtual platforms. Hyperconnect, a Korean social networking company that Tinder’s parent company Match Group purchased last year, will be powering the new Tinder metaverse dubbed “Single Town.”
Yumy is not the first China-based tech company to offer metaverse experiences. Tencent’s Soul, a social networking app, is now calling itself “the social metaverse,” where users can create themed chat rooms for games and even exam preparation, according to South China Morning Post.
In fact, according to Sixth Tone[*2] , the metaverse craze is driving many business decisions in China – so much that earlier in January, Beijing municipal officials announced that the city would be building a new supercomputing center as well as forming a new metaverse innovation consortium. City officials are also looking into creating a “metaverse industrial cluster,” according to Sixth Tone. Other cities and provinces are vying for their own stake in the metaverse economy, including holding metaverse seminars and symposiums or turning themselves into “data hubs.” Wuhan plans to construct five digital economy industrial parks to integrate the metaverse, cloud computing and blockchain.
Sixth Tone also points out that consulting firm PwC says extended reality technology could contribute as much as $1.5 trillion to the global economy by 2030.
Yumi has a global reach of over 30 million users after launching almost a year ago, including high-performing markets like the UAE, Egypt, New Zealand and the U.K. It is owned by Newborn Town, which also owns popular gay dating app Blued.
For Yumi, Newborn Town is partnering with local tech company Digital Dream Valley to develop virtual characters and 3D social scenes, as well as with social live streaming app MICO and audio networking app YoHo.
“The metaverse is the future of social networking,” Wei He, vice-president of Newborn Town, said in a statement. “We will keep exploring technological innovation and applications … and bring experiences that are authentic, efficient and immersive.”