Tencent says is making personnel adjustments after report of layoffs

Chinese tech outlet 36Kr reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources, that Tencent had notified the unit’s more than 300 staff that they would be given two months to find new internal or external opportunities and that the unit would be disbanded.

Tencent, Asia’s biggest internet company, told Reuters it was untrue that it planned to disband the business. It said it was making adjustments to some business teams as its development plans for hardware had changed.

The company formed the unit in June last year, with the aim of building up a business that would include software and hardware and spearhead Tencent’s bet on the metaverse concept of virtual worlds.

It also marked a rare foray into hardware for Tencent, which is mostly known for its software such as its range of games as well as social media applications.

Extended reality is a term that refers to immersive technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality, which considered as the building blocks of the metaverse.

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The metaverse became the new buzz word for investors and tech companies in 2021 after Mark Zuckerberg changed Facebook’s name to Meta Platforms and said he would devote the company’s future to building a metaverse.Tencent fired 100 in 2022

Tencent said last month it fired more than 100 employees for violating law and company policies in 2022, citing reasons including suspected bribery and embezzlement.

In a statement on its social network WeChat, the Shenzhen-based company said incidents spanned more than 70 cases across business lines as varied as video games, livestreaming and advertising, and that it had reported more than 10 people to law enforcement authorities.

The disclosure comes after Tencent’s founder Pony Ma said in a townhall in December that serious “corruption” issues had been discovered within the company and mismanagement was draining the company’s vitality.