Meta & Tencent To Team Up To Relaunch Business In China

Meta has reportedly turned to China’s Tencent to resurrect its business in that country.

A potential roadblock to the tech giant’s efforts, however, could be its CEO’s apparent views on China, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday (July 3).

Sources tell the newspaper that Meta’s efforts — to sell its Quest virtual reality headsets in China — face an obstacle, in part because executives there are concerned Mark Zuckerberg isn’t seen as being friendly to the nation.

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For example, Zuckerberg has accused China of stealing technology, criticized TikTok owner ByteDance and refused to comply with the government’s censorship rules. This could create uncertainty if the company and Tencent were to pursue licenses and approvals in China.

The WSJ report notes that a partnership could benefit both Tencent — the largest video game publisher in the world — and Meta, which could tap the Chinese market to recover some of the billions it has spent on its metaverse project.

The news follows last week’s announcement by Meta of a new subscription service for games on its virtual reality (VR) headsets.

Subscribers will get access to two titles per month that can be redeemed on the internet, in a headset or via the Meta Quest app.