China’s tech giants test the waters in fashion metaverse despite slim chance of profits
- Social e-commerce app Xiaohongshu, known as the Instagram of China, is selling virtual fashion items in the form of non-fungible tokens
- In March, Shanghai’s Dazzle Fashion joined Western peers including Dolce & Gabbana and Diesel to participate in Metaverse Fashion Week on Decentraland

China’s Big Tech companies from ByteDance to Tencent Holdings are testing the waters in the fashion metaverse even though prospects of monetisation and profitability are slim in the foreseeable future.
TikTok owner ByteDance is launching a digital fashion app compatible with the Douyin e-commerce platform and its Pico virtual reality headset, according to a report by Tech Planet.
Meanwhile, social e-commerce app Xiaohongshu is selling virtual fashion items in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), while gaming and social media giant Tencent Holdings has undertaken collaborations with a number of fashion brands for its Peacekeeper Elite game, the localised version of PUBG Mobile.
Both Tencent and ByteDance declined to disclose details of their digital fashion ventures when contacted by the Post.
Andrea Fenn, CEO of digital marketing agency Adiacent China, said the country is ready for a metaverse boom. “Chinese consumers take less time to embrace new ways of doing things with digital channels,” he said.