bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      name
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sections {
    value {
      relatedNewsletters {
        ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
        id
      }
      id
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on Section {
  name
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_image_posties_article", "og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Article {
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


sections

types

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

entityUuid

Ann Cao

NetEase, China’s second-largest video gaming company, is ramping up efforts to commercialise Yaotai, its immersive virtual conference platform, as competition in metaverse-related products intensifies in the world’s second-largest economy.
Hangzhou-based NetEase plans to introduce a smartphone app of the virtual meeting platform as early as August to help expand its user base, NetEase Yaotai head Liu Bai said in an interview earlier this month.
“Yaotai’s technological foundation is consistent with that of our games, so we can use many of the existing capabilities of NetEase Games,” Liu told the South China Morning Post. “Our main hope is to quickly bring it to market and help solve users’ problems.”
The app’s launch would mark an important update for the platform, which was launched by NetEase in October 2020 and can be accessed via desktop or smartphone through links. While the existing platform’s rendering process is currently handled on the cloud, the app would complete such rendering on users’ own terminals to “significantly lower the cost” of using Yaotai, Liu said.

In 2020, an academic conference organiser asked Liu, who was then in charge of NetEase big data product Thunder Fire, to “hold a meeting inside a game” and enable attendees to visually display their papers, instead of just communicating through voice calls. The request inspired NetEase to spin off a team focused on developing a virtual conferencing product, he said.
China’s video conferencing market that year reached US$950 million, up 18.9 per cent from 2019, on the back of high demand for online meeting software, according to data from tech research firm International Data Corp.
NetEase started to commercialise Yaotai in 2021, initially attracting users who could not attend offline events under strict travel and social-distancing restrictions owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. Around 100 virtual conferences have so far been conducted on Yaotai by institutional customers that include universities and various enterprises, according to NetEase data.
But it was not until last December when Yaotai made a big splash to catch the public’s attention. NetEase founder and chief executive William Ding Lei endorsed the capabilities of the platform during the virtual listing ceremony in Hong Kong of Cloud Village, the company’s music-streaming service, early that month. Ding appeared as two avatars of himself – one aged 29, the other aged 50 – to bang the Hong Kong bourse’s virtual ceremonial gong at the same time.

The launch of a Yaotai app reflects NetEase’s sharpened focus on the metaverse, as other large Chinese internet peers such as Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings step up their own initiatives in this nascent market.
Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, has already announced plans for new augmented reality (AR) glasses that will enable users of workplace app DingTalk to conduct virtual meetings. Tencent in November said it can approach the metaverse through its major strengths of video game development and social networking.
The metaverse refers to an immersive virtual world, where digital representations of people can interact. Virtual reality (VR), along with AR, augmented reality, are regarded as fundamental technologies to the development of the metaverse.
The metaverse, in turn, is an integral part in the development of Web3. It refers to the new version of the World Wide Web that is based on decentralisation and blockchain, the digital ledger technology behind cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.
Tencent, NetEase are front runners in global metaverse race, CS says
“From the development of Web2 to Web3, metaverse-related products have evolved from browsing a system on a two-dimensional basis to entering the system via an immersive, three-dimensional experience,” Liu said. “Yaotai is doing that by bringing in virtual human avatars.”
Yaotai users, for example, can customise their avatars before entering any virtual meeting. This function, powered by technology from NetEase’s artificial intelligence-focused Fuxi Lab, has been widely adopted in the firm’s games, including Justice Online and Naraka: Bladepoint.
Whether on a desktop personal computer or smartphone, Yaotai users need to create their own avatars. These can be operated to walk across a virtual venue, look at posters on a wall, talk with other meeting attendees or gather in a large conference room to listen to speakers on stage. The virtual meeting organiser, meanwhile, oversees the event through a back-end system that collects the data of attendees.
Under China’s zero-Covid-19 policy, Liu is confident that domestic demand for Yaotai would remain strong. As such, Liu said he plans to expand his team to around 200 employees in two years from just a few dozen today. He also said Yaotai is working to bring in VR headsets to work with its app.

NetEase last week used Yaotai for a non-profit photography exhibition in which it displayed 20 non-fungible tokens, which are described as digital collectibles in China.
Liu, however, indicated that a genuine metaverse era, when people spend more time in the virtual world, is still quite far away.
“We have chosen several scenarios in which users have the exact same needs in terms of meetings, exhibitions and live events,” Liu said. “But these are just ‘meta rooms’ or ‘meta cities’. When more areas can be linked together, that’s when we’ll get close to a ‘meta universe’.”


NetEase to launch app of virtual meeting platform Yaotai in August, as competition heats up on metaverse-related products

The launch of its Yaotai virtual meeting app reflects NetEase’s sharpened focus on the metaverse. Photo: Weibo

The launch of its Yaotai virtual meeting app reflects NetEase’s sharpened focus on the metaverse. Photo: Shutterstock

A group of academics from Nanjing University conducted a meeting in 2020 using NetEase’s virtual conference platform Yaotai, which enabled their avatars to appear wearing ancient Chinese garments. Photo: Handout

NetEase founder and chief executive William Ding Lei, fifth from right on stage, endorsed the capabilities of Yaotai during the virtual listing ceremony in Hong Kong of Cloud Village, the company’s music-streaming service, in December last year. Photo: Handout

NetEase held its investor meeting on December 21, 2021, on Yaotai’s immersive virtual conference platform. Photo: Handout

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NetEase plans to introduce its Yaotai app as early as August to help expand the virtual meeting platform’s user base
Around 100 virtual conferences have so far been conducted on Yaotai by institutional customers that include universities and various enterprises


Chinese video gaming giant NetEase plans to introduce its Yaotai app as early as August to help expand the virtual meeting platform’s user base.


NetEase to launch app of virtual meeting platform Yaotai in August, as competition heats up on metaverse-related products

NetEase plans to introduce its Yaotai app as early as August to help expand the virtual meeting platform’s user base Around 100 virtual conferences have so far been conducted on Yaotai by institutional customers that include universities and various enterprises

NetEase plans to introduce its Yaotai app as early as August to help expand the virtual meeting platform’s user base

Around 100 virtual conferences have so far been conducted on Yaotai by institutional customers that include universities and various enterprises