Tencent isn't the only company looking to build a VR ecosystem.

In 2019, Zuckerberg told The Information that Facebook was developing a new operating system specifically for VR devices.

In May 2021, Andrew, the vice president of Facebook's AR/VR division, confirmed in an online forum that Facebook was developing a dedicated operating system for AR/VR.

Tencent has always had this idea, but there has been ongoing internal debate about whether or not to do it.

Developing an operating system requires a significant investment of human and material resources, and success is not guaranteed.

If you fail at making software, the loss is not significant. But if you fail at making an operating system, the human and material resources invested are on a completely different scale.

Tencent has many internal factions, and it has been unable to make a decision on developing an operating system for a long time, until news broke that Kechuang Bio was going to develop brain-computer interface VR.

Ren Yu realized that this was an opportunity, a rare opportunity.

Kechuang Biotechnology's brain-computer interface technology is currently monopolized. VR devices developed based on brain-computer interface technology have richer functions and a better experience than products on the market.

The experience of operating a device by pressing buttons is completely different from operating it directly with your brain.

Ren Yu, as the president of Tencent's Interactive Entertainment Business Group and Platform Content Business Group, highly values ​​the cooperation with Kechuang Bio.

The stricter issuance of game licenses in 2022 has made it impossible for many small game companies to survive.

For small and medium-sized game companies to survive, releasing their games on Steam is almost the only option.

However, very few small and medium-sized game companies on Steam can produce highly acclaimed games that are enough to sustain their business.

The release of "Black Myth: Wukong" has been repeatedly delayed.

On the contrary, large game companies like Tencent and NetEase are doing very well. They can obtain a small number of game licenses and recruit talent from small and medium-sized game companies that have failed.

Finding a decent job in the gaming industry in 2022 was incredibly difficult, with even major companies having many projects canceled.

Tencent has a large pool of experienced game developers who use high-quality graphics and sophisticated numerical systems to create various pay-to-win games.

Instead, they made a fortune.

All this prosperity is based on Tencent's control of massive traffic; as long as you are Chinese, you will inevitably be unable to do without Tencent's software.

QQ and WeChat have such a huge advantage that even if miHoYo's Genshin Impact becomes popular, it won't affect Tencent's core business.

Tencent's prosperity is based on traffic, so its decline will inevitably be a decline caused by traffic issues. That's why Tencent treats Douyin (TikTok) as a major threat.

Because users are spending more time on Douyin, it inevitably means they are spending less time on Tencent's other apps. People's time is limited.

Meanwhile, Douyin is also recruiting talent in the fields of games, novels, and e-commerce, determined to replicate the success of Tencent and Ali.

Crossing over into developing a VR operating system is a way to counter ByteDance's strategy of overwhelming them with traffic.

However, ByteDance entered the VR field early on, acquiring Pico and promoting Pico's new products through splash screen ads on Douyin.

It's almost impossible for Tencent to win this battle relying on Black Shark. Black Shark hasn't made much progress in the mobile phone market, and Tencent hopes to transform Black Shark into a VR company after the acquisition.

The collaboration with Kechuang Biotechnology gave Tencent hope—the hope of defeating its competitors and monopolizing the VR market.

After Ren Yulai expressed his desire to cooperate, companies such as Ali, ByteDance, Dami, OV, and Huawei came to him one after another.

Each of them is very persistent.

In particular, the consumer electronics industry has been experiencing declining sales due to the American ban.

They advertised 5G back then, but now their high-end phones are all 4G. They can't exactly say that Huawei's 4G signal is better than other phone brands' 5G signal.

The market share that Huawei gave up was basically taken up by OPPO, Vivo, Xiaomi, and Honor.

As an aside, among the four companies OVMH, rice sales ranked last in the fourth quarter of 2021, and this situation did not improve in 2022.

Lei Jun is very anxious. The domestic smartphone market is already a red ocean. He can't break into the high-end market, and his market share in the mid-to-low-end market is constantly being eroded.

That said, Huawei's consumer electronics division employs a large number of people, including HiSilicon Kirin. Although no chip foundries manufacture chips for Huawei, HiSilicon cannot be dissolved. Even if it costs money but doesn't make money, it still has to be supported.

This puts immense pressure on Huawei, and it would be ideal if they could collaborate with Kechuang Bio on brain-computer interface VR.

VR and mobile phones both belong to the consumer electronics industry, so employees can switch directly there. In addition, if brain-computer interface VR is developed well enough, the market is huge and could completely support Huawei.

Therefore, Yu Chengdong personally led a team to Kechuang Biotechnology to talk to Cheng Gang.

They played every card imaginable, from financial incentives to emotional appeals, and of course, offered very generous terms.

This level of cooperation could only be decided by Zheng Li, and the agenda was discussed for a very long time during the remote board meeting.

Each has its unique advantages, making it difficult to choose one over the other.

Afterwards, Li Miaomiao privately chatted with Zheng Li and asked, "What are you thinking?"

Who will partner with for brain-computer interface VR?

"I think Huawei is very good, but the only drawback is that it is afraid of being blocked by America. The chip issue is difficult to solve, and if VR is to be sold in overseas markets, cooperating with Huawei will almost certainly mean missing out on the America market."

Zheng Li: "Choose a hardware manufacturer, then choose a software manufacturer; a three-way collaboration is more reasonable."

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