China’s Tencent rolls out videoconferencing tool for overseas market amid coronavirus pandemic

Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings has launched a videoconferencing app for the overseas market as the coronavirus pandemic forces people globally to embrace the work-from-home model, putting the company in direct competition with international players such as Zoom.

VooV Meeting, the international version of the Shenzhen-based company’s domestic app Tencent Meeting, was rolled out in over 100 countries and regions including Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan last Friday, Tencent said in a statement.

The tool is currently free to use and can host up to 300 participants in an online meeting, according to the statement.

“The coronavirus situation is grim overseas, and we hope to offer the capability of working remotely for users in other countries and regions,” Wu Zurong, vice-president of Tencent Cloud, said in the statement. “We expect to roll out the services in more parts of the world in the future in compliance with local regulations.”

Tencent’s move comes as governments around the world are trying to combat the accelerating pandemic which has spread to 170 countries and regions and as of Monday had forced more than one-fifth of the world’s population to stay in their homes.

Italy, Spain and France have imposed nationwide lockdowns, while more than 10,000 deaths have been reported in Europe alone, the new epicentre of the disease. Britain was the latest to join other nations in imposing strict stay-at-home orders on Monday.