A recent report revealed that Tencent Group is planning to buy the Black Shark brand and integrate it with its own Content Business Group. Yes! Tencent’s plan to immediately plunge into the Metaverse seems to be in sight.
The news came from 36Kr and several independent sources stating that Tencent does have a goal of acquiring a gaming smartphone manufacturer or brand. It was also stated that later the gaming smartphone brand would carry out a business transformation after the acquisition process was completed.
In other words, Black Shark as a brand is likely to see expansion after the purchase transaction process has reached an agreement. This diversification process is also reported to be expanding to include technology and devices based on VR (Virtual Reality).
So, the software content for VR will be provided by Tencent, while Black Shark produces the hardware. For those who don’t know, this gaming smartphone brand is a relatively young company, founded in 2017 and backed by another Chinese tech giant, Xiaomi.
As of now, Xiaomi is the majority shareholder, holding around 46.4 percent stake in Black Shark. Unfortunately, what is reported by 36Kr and several other independent sources has not been publicly confirmed by Tencent, at least until this news aired.
After the Metaverse was introduced and disseminated, indeed not a few technology companies continued to move further to develop AR/VR. Yes! For some Chinese tech companies, it’s only a matter of time. Of course, they will continue to offer the latest innovations related to the Metaverse.
In Q3 2021, Tencent has applied for a number of trademarks for Metaverse. While the company has yet to confirm this news, it makes sense that the Tencent Group would seek out an experienced brand that has its own facilities for R&D and manufacturing to build a platform on which its content can be accessed.
This is also not something new. The reason is, Facebook has previously acquired Oculus to fill a hardware gap in its plans to provide VR content along with devices that allow users to access the VR world.
Another source added that Tencent is likely to collaborate with many partners or brands to work on AR/VR-related projects, such as HTC. However, because this group is known for a number of popular game titles on the market, it is not surprising that they chose Black Shark first.
