Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce giant, is initiating an exclusive NFT (non-fungible token) portion in its auction services in an effort to accept blockchain technology. Bit Universe (a section at Tree Graph Blockchain Research Institute) has started an NFT service known as Guang Jian, which is allocated to assist in the NFT bidding and display requirements of Alibaba’s auction, as mentioned in a yesterday released statement by the firm.
Guang Jian will help Alibaba’s respective services for goods related to digital arts, cards for digital trading, digital copyrights, as well as e-sports. The statement added that Guang Jian is linked to the services developed on the New Copyright Blockchain (the blockchain infrastructure which is supported y the provincial government of Sichuan) and Tree Graph Blockchain. The consumers will be allowed to access the platform via an affiliate of Alibaba called Alipay (considered among the prominent Chinese payment applications) or WeChat (a Tencent-based application).
Alibaba has not rolled out firstly regarding NFT-associated service. During the recent week, Alipay issued NFT artworks displaying “White Snake 2: The Tribulation of the Green Snake” (a famous animated movie of China being premiered last month). The NFTs consisted of the wallpapers for the pages of the consumers’ payment code. A sum of 80,000 replicas of a couple of editions was sold out in just one day. Following this, Alipay again successfully dropped NFT art, which featured the adaptation of hovering apsaras as well as sacred deer belonging to Thousand Buddhas’ Cave known as Mogao Cave which is situated in Dunhuang (a Chinese city).
In the last month, an online shopping place in China, “Taobao” (which operates under Alibaba), has also sold NFTs during its yearly held shopping festival. In the meantime, Tencent has also introduced NFTs of its QQ Music (a music streaming instrument), from which the first NFT was sold, which displayed Tiger Hu (a famous singer of Mando-pop).
Most recently, in the current month, another platform for trading NFTs has been launched by Tencent, which is named Huanhe (constructed on the firm’s special Zhixin chain). Its first sale offered 300 audio NFTs featuring Shisanyao (a renowned Chinese talk show), and its price was set as 18 yuan, counting to US$2.78 per NFT.
Both the above-discussed organizations have been accused by Beijing of being involved in monopolistic activities. Thus, the Chinese regulators are intensively scrutinizing them.