Where Is The Next Virtual World? Interview With Eric Ye, CEO Of UWorld

Probably two years ago, Virtual Worlds might be the hottest concept in the web industry and the Internet space were impressed by those pioneers, such as SecondLife, HiPiHi, UWorld, etc… Now the hype is gone and it’s hard to see coverages about 3D virtual worlds on mainstream media any more. However, Chinese virtual worlds are still exploring their way to success in the 3D web market. How to build the user base and cultivate user culture when when the market is still at the initial stage? The experience from the virtual world pioneer is invaluable.

Recently Cindy Jiang of MOBINODE.TV sit down with the Co-Founder of UWorld, Eric Ye, a former IBM senior engineer. We would like to figure out the key challenges and opportunities UWorld confront right now:

1. How are they making the 3D product more attractive and suitable for current Chinese users?

2. What kind of marketing strategy they would take to increase the user base?

3. How can they survive in the 3D industry which is still a virgin place?

And, what’s their views for a more profitable future? As you might be aware of, 3D web applications are more acceptable in enterprise market than individual users’ so far. Many virtual worlds have created revenues as software providers to enterprise users. It is getting quite popular to integrate 3D technology into product display, online marketing campaign, internal meeting/training, etc.. This technology still holds massive potential in consumer market. Many players in local industry are working hard to build a prosperous 3D online community, as well as enhance the economic value of 3D applications.

Where is the next Virtual World? Hope you can find some ideas from the video interview. (Thanks to Moy Hau again, who volunteered to make English subtitles for us in this video. )

Video interview with Eric Ye, Co-Founder of Uworld from MOBINODE.TV on Vimeo.

August 20, 2009 · Filed Under China Web2, Virtual World

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Is Tencent Opening Up? Third Party Applications Now Available in QZone

I had a conversation two months ago with Peter Zheng, the product manager of QZone, Tencent’s SNS which might be the No.1 social networking place in terms of the user base, traffic and revenue. I asked him, will QZone become an Open Platform like many other SNSs, and in general, will Tencent open up? He said, we will and we are working on it. But unlike others, we have our own strategy, will open up slowly, carefully and efficiently.

Now Peter proves it. Two third parties are ‘luckily’ picked up by Tencent, Five Minutes and Douban. The former is the leading social game developing company whose Happy Farm social game also conquers other leading SNSs such as 51 and Xiaonei and latter is the one of most popular web2.0 service focusing on books, movie and albums. Happy Farm is available in QZone for a while and today Douban app is also spotted (for QZone user, you can find it at http://user.qzone.qq.com/your_qq_number/501).

Also talked to another Tencent senior product manager recently. He said, “for Tencent to develop a game like Happy Farm is easy, but they decided not to. And everyone thinks Tencent is driven by revenue (Editor: Happy Farm is making $$$, but not sure how the two sides split the money.), but partnership with Douban is a sign that Tencent is opening up.” With Douban application, QZone users can share with friends what they are reading and comments and also search for books.

“We know Open is the trend and we are not against it. But look at those open platforms, everyone is still thinking of how to really benefit from the openning-up.”, Peter said, “we are open to third parties, but we now have to carefully decide on which one we should work with.”

If you have any thoughts on Tencent’s move to Open, please do share with us.

August 9, 2009 · Filed Under China Web2, Open Web, Virtual World