China contains over a billion people, an increasingly web-oriented culture, and its tech leaders recognize the future of the 3D internet. It’s no wonder that Hipihi is set to explode. The website borrows the concept of user-created digital worlds from SecondLife, and, while aesthetically it is similar to SecondLife (with some clear Asian influences); users can fly, build avatars and infrastructure, and fully interact. The site is also attempting to provide a framework for the “mainstreaming of virtual worlds”; TechCrunch reports that the site is working with Intel and IBM to achieve these goals.
“HiPiHi World is a 3D digital world as rich and complex as the real world, and is created, inhabited and owned by its residents.”
With internet growth exponentially increasing in China, any popular web concept can be a success. The digital world phenomenon has already proven a success in other countries, and a purely Chinese version- created, designed, and inhabited- will undoubtedly appeal to the Chinese internet community. Beyond that, the website has the idea of creating a web standard, and by working with tech giants, has the potential to make a name for itself in the 3D internet sphere.
Can politics intervene? If the site does take off, could there be restrictions on building or social interactions?
Visit website:
http://www.hipihi.com
