Chinese internet giant Tencent is making a foray in the world of non-fungible tokens, launching an NFT trading platform named Huanhe.
Fast facts
- The tech conglomerate has rolled out the Huanhe app — built on the company’s own Zhixin chain — on its Android application platform.
- Its debut sales feature 300 audio NFTs created based on well-known Chinese talk show Shisanyao, set to be sold for 18 yuan (US$2.78) each, according to Tencent.
- Tencent is not the first Chinese tech giant that’s climbed aboard the NFT bandwagon. Alibaba affiliate Alipay, one of the country’s major payment apps, sold 32,000 pieces of NFT artwork within a day in June. Chinese online shopping platform Taobao, owned by Alibaba, last month also sold NFTs at its annual shopping festival.
- Annabelle Huang, partner at Hong Kong-based crypto financial services company Amber Group, told Forkast.News last month that NFTs could be the next big thing in China.
- “Before May, a lot of the people in crypto in China were miners, and mining was a legitimate business mode. But since the ban and the great migration [of crypto miners from China], people are looking to the next thing,” Huang said. “NFT itself is not an [initial coin offering], it’s not crypto pump-and-dump, so to speak, so I think the government, the regulator’s attitude, is more friendly.”