Quick read
➨ XRSPACE has landed $15 million of investment from electronics manufacturer Foxconn, in a partnership that could be worth $100 million
➨ Foxconn will support XRSPACE in the development of metaverse infrastructure
➨ Following in the investment, XRSPACE appears to be prioritising GOXR and PartyOn as its metaverse products
The story
XRSPACE, the Taiwan-headquartered metaverse company from former chief executive officer and co-founder of HTC, Peter Chou, has landed $15 million of investment from electronics manufacturer Foxconn, in a partnership that could be worth $100 million.
Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Technology Group, has taken a stake in the company in exchange for the initial $15 million investment, following the success of last year’s Hon Hai Tech Day, which was held online on the GOXR platform.
GOXR is XRSPACE’s metaverse product for business and creative industries, providing an online social and ecommerce platform for immersive events, meetings, shopping and other digital activities.
 100vw, 600px” data-recalc-dims=”1″><figcaption><strong><em>GOXR 3D showroom</em></strong></figcaption></figure>
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<p>It launched amid the increasing popularity of the ‘metaverse’ concept to serve business needs, taking advantage of XRSPACE’s advances in digital avatars, 3D virtual space creation and interaction, computer vision, and hand gesture and hologram tracking.</p>
<p>XRSPACE came to market in 2017 with <a rel=)
MANOVA World, a social virtual reality (VR) platform accessible via the company’s own hands-free, mobile headset.
Both the software and hardware were described by XRSPACE as innovations. The MANOVA headset, for example, represented something of a reset for VR, in that it required users to use hand motions and gestures to navigate through and interact with the social VR platform.
Both MANOVA World and the headset were rolling out last year in Asia with a European release mooted, but XRSPACE does appear to now be prioritising GOXR and PartyOn, its consumer-targeted social music platform for digital concerts and festivals. VRWorldTech Magazine has asked about the future of MANOVA World and the headset.
 100vw, 600px” data-recalc-dims=”1″><figcaption><strong><em>XRSPACE launched PartyOn in partnership with Agora, Pico and Rokid</em></strong></figcaption></figure>
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<p>This is further backed by XRSPACE pursuing a hardware-agnostic strategy for GOXR and PartyOn, as well as an ongoing partnership—subject to a memorandum of understanding—with Foxconn that will see the electronics manufacturer invest $100 million and “enable XRSPACE to build the infrastructure needed” to optimise its software platforms </p>
<p>“In order to create a bigger and better Metaverse in the future, we need to combine cloud, AI, edge computing, 5G and storage,” explains Chou. “This is the key reason for this partnership.” </p>
<p><em>(Editor’s note: </em>VRWorldTech Magazine<em> will capitalise references to the Metaverse, ie, the proposed 3D immersive internet, to differentiate the concept from metaverse(s) and related products and services in development at a range of companies).</em></p>
<p>Chou continues: “Foxconn has a clear vision on [the] Metaverse. We believe there are so many things we can do to complement each other and work together to make the Metaverse better. We are super excited for the partnership with Foxconn, this strategic partnership is not just only making our metaverse experiences better and stronger, Foxconn will also help us a lot on global market development.”</p>
<p>Young Liu, chairman of Hon Hai Technology Group, believes the partnership will “enhance the software technology, delivering a holistic metaverse hardware and software ecosystem”.</p>
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 100vw, 600px” data-recalc-dims=”1″><figcaption><strong><em>Foxconn and XRSPACE executives agreeing their memorandum of understanding</em></strong></figcaption></figure>
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<p>Of Foxconn’s own metaverse strategy, Liu says: “[Our] approach towards the Metaverse is the same as that for electric cars—we will provide our expertise within the framework rather than solely focusing on the end product, developing in key areas that include augmented reality (AR)/VR, software, infrastructure, content and applications and addressing the increasing demand for cloud services and more powerful server architecture.”</p>
<p>“Foxconn, as the world’s largest server provider, will be able to provide its knowledge to support these potential opportunities.”</p>
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