Alibaba Cuts Employees At Metaverse Unit As Sector Hype Fades
In Brief
Alibaba Group is downsizing its metaverse department, laying off employees at Yuanjing to improve organizational efficiency and streamline operations.
Multinational technology company Alibaba Group announced a downsizing of its metaverse department, resulting in the layoff of several employees at Yuanjing. This restructuring aims to enhance organizational efficiency and streamline operations.
The workforce reductions impacted Yuanjing’s offices in both Shanghai and Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province. Established by Alibaba in 2021 during a surge of interest in the metaverse, Yuanjing was positioned to explore this emerging technology. Yuanjing, which had received financial investment amounting to “billions of yuan,” previously employed several hundred staff members.
Despite the layoffs, it is believed that Alibaba’s metaverse division will remain operational, with a continued focus on developing metaverse applications, tools, and services for its customers.
Alibaba’s involvement in the metaverse has included investments, such as leading a $60 million funding round for Nreal, a Chinese augmented-reality (AR) glasses manufacturer. AR, along with virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR), is widely seen as a key gateway for accessing metaverse platforms.
In recent times, Yuanjing had been working on a cloud-based operating system designed to support metaverse integration in video gaming and various industrial applications.
Alibaba Scales Back Metaverse Ambitions Amid Broader Tech Industry Shift Toward AI
Alibaba’s decision to reduce its metaverse workforce mirrors a broader trend among major technology companies, which are scaling back investments in the highly publicized metaverse sector while channeling more resources into AI.
In October of the previous year, Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, reportedly laid off employees within the Facebook Agile Silicon Team, part of its Reality Labs division focused on metaverse-related semiconductor development. Similarly, Baidu experienced a leadership shift in its metaverse division when Ma Jie, the executive in charge, departed the company in May. This move came as Baidu redirected its focus toward AI advancements following the global introduction of ChatGPT by US-based start-up OpenAI a few months earlier.
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About The Author
Alisa, a dedicated journalist at the MPost, specializes in crypto, AI, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a keen eye for emerging trends and technologies, she delivers comprehensive coverage to inform and engage readers in the ever-evolving landscape of digital finance.
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Alisa, a dedicated journalist at the MPost, specializes in crypto, AI, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a keen eye for emerging trends and technologies, she delivers comprehensive coverage to inform and engage readers in the ever-evolving landscape of digital finance.
