36 The Metaverse Overview : Vision, Technology, and Tactics | Industry Microsoft puts more efforts into the enterprise Metaverse. In August 2021, Microsoft announced its enterprise Metaverse solution, with two core features: Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces and Mesh for Teams. Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces helps company administrators analyze the movements and interactions of consumers in grocery stores or employees on factory floors. Mesh for Microsoft Teams integrates Microsoft Mesh (an MR meeting platform) into Microsoft Teams, allowing people in different locations to collaborate on Teams using 3D avatars. In the hardware layer, Microsoft has VR/AR visualization (the Hololens series) and somatosensory technology (Kinect). In terms of applications, apart from enterprise software mentioned above, Microsoft has acquired Minecraft and Activision Blizzard in gaming. As the second-largest public cloud server in the world, Microsoft is experienced in edge computing and AI. Google Google has solid foundation in the infrastructure layer of the Metaverse through its AI and cloud service. In 2017, Google's strategy changed from Mobile First to AI First, and it now leads the AI industry in R&D and applications. Tensor Flow, Google's open-source software for AI, is widely used worldwide, and Google has launched TPU chips specifically for Tensor Flow. In cloud computing, Google Cloud is among the world's top four public cloud service providers. With its combined efforts in cloud computing and AI, Google can play an important role in Metaverse infrastructure. In the access layer, it does not yet have a top product but the release of Google Glass in 2012 should not be ignored. Google has only a few deployments in the application layer, and mainly combines existing businesses with the Metaverse concept, including Stadia in cloud games and YouTube VR in software services. Amazon Amazon's Metaverse strategy of is mainly based on its current cloud computing AWS and e-commerce business. It has provided cloud-computing services to help Meta accelerate R&D on its AI projects. The two companies will also cooperate to help customers improve the performance of PyTorch (a deep learning computing framework) on AWS, and accelerate the modelling, training, and deployment in AI and machine learning. Amazon also cooperates with Epic games and provides it with cloud- computing services. Epic Games' ace product, Fortnite, has 350 million users worldwide. As a Metaverse game, it requires massive computing resources. Almost all of its workload is currently on AWS. In addition, Amazon is using its advantages in retail to develop AR shopping applications. Chinese internet companies in the Metaverse Chinese internet companies are developing applications for multiple layers of the Metaverse by utilizing their own strengths. Baidu Baidu's Metaverse advantage is in AI and hardware, as an internet giant with an early strategy and in-depth development of AI. Its business ranges from search engines to AI applications including chips, AI open-source algorithms, and intelligent driving, with AI running through every aspect of its business. In hardware, Baidu has been involved in VR for many years with a full-scale product line that includes consumer- oriented (iQIYI Qiyu series) and enterprise-oriented VR (Baidu VR). In applications, Baidu has launched Xirang alongside its VR lines. This is a mixed enterprise-consumer virtual community that aims to create a virtual world supporting multiplayer interactions. Baidu also has autonomous-driving technology and could make this one of its Metaverse applications. Alibaba In the Metaverse, Alibaba focuses on two core advantages: Metaverse solutions based on cloud computing and combining e-commerce user experience optimization with the Metaverse. It has extensive experience in cloud computing, with a public cloud that ranks third in the global market, only behind Amazon and Microsoft. In 2021, Alibaba put more effort into the Metaverse, creating cloud game Yuanjing, building an XR laboratory, and launching NFT platform Jingtan. In e-commerce, Taobao supported VR shopping since 2016. Tencent Tencent's Metaverse strengths are backed by its huge user base and rich application scenarios in social interaction, lifestyle services, and entertainment content. Starting with the popular games Roblox and Fortnite, Tencent has assembled a development team for Metaverse games and invested in