Category: Apps

Tencent is finding success in offering inexpensive content

Tencent is one of China’s largest Internet and commerce businesses, but it does have strong competition from others that have established a foothold in both of these sectors. In order for Tencent to beat out the competition, the company is beginning to focus on providing consumers with inexpensive entertainment, ranging from mobile games to free video streaming services. Tencent expects to see significant growth in the coming year, despite the slowing economy in China.

Mobile games and free HBO streaming are likely to generate strong interest among consumers

Tencent is responsible for the massively popular WeChat and QQ messaging applications. Both of these apps will soon support new mobile games that are coming to the country. They will also offer free streaming of HBO’s successful “Game of Thrones” series. Mobile games, in particular, are likely to drive significant growth, as many consumers in China prefer to play these types of games because they represent a very convenient form of entertainment.

China’s economy is growing slowly

By coupling mobile games with free video streaming through WeChat and QQ, Tencent expects that it will see a 28% surge in sales. This is four times faster than the rate of domestic economic growth in China. The country’s economy is currently growing at the slowest rate it has seen in 25 years. Several companies have managed to find success despite the slowing economy through a focus on the mobile sector. These companies are supporting mobile commerce, as well as various forms of mobile media.

Mobile games continue to find success in China

Mobile games are likely to become a primary focus for Tencent, but not the company’s sole focus, of course. Tencent has a long history of supporting mobile gaming and by expanding the capabilities of its WeChat and QQ apps, it will likely connect better with gamers in China. Many new games are coming to China, with developers seeing significant promise in the country. This has made China one of the fastest growing markets for mobile games in the world.

The uber popular streaming video site has unveiled its new paid subscription service and future plans.

The YouTube Space in L.A. played host to a number of announcement about the website and its mobile app, and now there have been announcements with regards to two interesting new features that will be added to the streaming service’s Android application.

The announcement stated that virtual reality video would be added to the YouTube Android app.

This provides V.R. with the largest platform that it has ever had. The mobile app already supports virtual reality video, which is a format that provides viewers with 360 degree perspectives of the videos which the company has said makes the experience more realistic. In order to view one of these videos, a user must simply play the virtual reality video on the application, then select the VR mode button. The phone must then be placed in the “Cardboard” device from Alphabet Inc. That gadget is what provides the actual viewing experience in virtual reality.

The Cardboard viewer can be used to upload virtual reality content to be viewed through the YouTube mobile app.

According to YouTube, at the time of the launch of the service, there were about a dozen videos available in this format, including one that was based on content from the Hunger Games movies. YouTube has also announced that a more limited virtual reality experience would be available using Cardboard simply by playing the rest of the videos in the streaming site’s massive library. Those videos would give the type of experience that would be expected from an IMAX theater.

According to the Immersive Technology Alliance executive director, Neil Schneider, 3D video was first introduced by YouTube in 2009 and the company was an early HD video adopter. For that reason, the VR trade organization’s executive director said that “It’s not surprising they would take the angle of adding virtual reality”.

Schneider also stated that people should be able to anticipate an influx of high quality content, but also said that it would likely be quite difficult to create amateur content since it is usually quite expensive to purchase the equipment needed to make VR content. It will be interesting to see how this changes the experience provided by the YouTube mobile app.