In addition to doing research on basic technologies, Tencent has expressed its intention to promote the artificial intelligence of various application scenarios through business drivers.
Combined with Tencent's main business, it is not difficult to predict that the company will focus on the four major applications of gaming, social networking, content, and platform tools in the future.
In the social realm in particular, last year Zuckerberg said he would launch a VR version of Facebook and showed off the virtual character tool Oculus Avatars. In July this year, Facebook said that Facebook AR Studio would partner with Meitu to provide it with three AR camera effects. Now, Tencent is also taking action.
On the evening of July 18, artificial intelligence startup ObEN announced that it had received 5 million US dollars in strategic investment. The round of financing was led by Tencent, and CMC Chairperson Li Ruigang and Fengshang Capital joined the investment. According to data from crunchbase, an investment and financing information platform, ObEN has completed four rounds of financing, with a total amount of 13.70 million US dollars. Previous investors include S Rushan Capital, SoftBank Korea Venture Capital and HTC VIVE X.
Founded in 2014, ObEN can create artificial intelligence avatars of users by building personalized virtual voices, images, and personalities, and help users store, manage, and operate their avatars in the emerging digital world. That is to say, ObEN can use artificial intelligence tools to create virtual images based on users' photos and voices, allowing users to have different AR and VR social experiences.