Alibaba the Chinese e-commerce giant has announced its own VR research lab named as GnomeMagic Lab to add VR to its e-commerce services. The company also initially invested in the popular augmented reality company Magic Leap earlier in the year.
Alibaba the big e-commerce platform claims to reach 400 million users worldwide and plans to integrate VR with shopping experiences. The specialized lab named GnomeMagic will work its way into VR technologies to bring virtual reality into the shopping experience, exploring other applications at the same time such as Youku Tudou video for 360 degree panoramic views. The entertainment portal was invested in by Alibaba Pictures as an official entry into the virtual reality industry and is still in the process of attaining $3.5 billion.
Facebook’s former engineer Zhao Haiping who is now on the team of GnomeMagic, Alibaba’s VR lab said in a press conference that VR integrated with shopping could help customers to shop virtually from New York’s Fifth Avenue or the stores of Paris sitting anywhere in the world.
However, seeing the bigger and the more commercial picture Alibaba wants to woo merchants with VR to sell on the sites. Alibaba also claims to have already created VR views for thousands of products. So that’s the current plan Alibaba feels will lead them into core VR business in the longer run. Also, the company will set up a store dedicated to VR hardware to get companies to reach out to the audience.
Virtual Reality is currently the red hot iron which everybody wants to strike while it’s still hot and thus every firm, enterprise and company wants to make the most of this hot new thing to grow bigger and better. Te competition is surely rising but it might as well just be worth it.
