Douyin, OPPO, miHoYo and Others Invest in Unity’s Affiliate in China

Oct 14, 2022, 21:40pm2022/10/17 20:14:42 Pandaily

According to business information query platform Tianyancha, on October 11, Yousandi Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., the global game engine giant Unity’s affiliate in China and the exclusive distributor of Unity’s products and services in China, added several new shareholders, including subsidiaries of ByteDance’s Douyin, game developer miHoYo, smartphone maker OPPO, and multimedia service provider China Mobile.

The new shareholders of Yousandi Technology include Beijing Quantum Jump Technology Co., Ltd. under Douyin, Shanghai miHoYo Aerge Technology Co., Ltd., OPPO’s Xunxing Investment (Chongqing) Co., Ltd., PCI, China Mobile’s subsidiary, and others.

The new shareholders range from e-commerce, communication operators, games, mobile phones, artificial intelligence, short video platforms and others, with each having a strong need for game engine technology. Douyin’s beauty camera FaceU and game line have cooperated with Unity while miHoYo was a Unity customer before and its Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3rd were both developed using the Unity platform. As a provider of artificial intelligence technology products and services, PCI focuses on smart city and digital twin business, and has cooperative potential with Unity.

Founded in 2004, Unity’s eponymous software, the Unity engine, is one of the most popular game development engines in the world, powering many well-known mobile games in China, such as Tencent<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder />’s Honor of Kings and miHoYo’s Genshin Impact.

Greater China is one of Unity’s fastest-growing market regions. According to the company’s latest financial report, in the second quarter of 2022, Unity’s revenue from Greater China was $42.29 million, a year-on-year increase of 9.4%, accounting for 14.2% of overall revenue.

Unity announced on August 9 that it has entered into an agreement with leading partners to form a new regional joint venture called Unity China. Local partners will include Alibaba<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder />, China Mobile, game developer G-Bits and miHoYo, OPPO, PCI, and Douyin Group. The company will retain majority ownership and control of Unity China, which will operate solely within Greater China.

Unity wants its software to be used more widely in China, from areas ranging from smart cities and industrial design to the metaverse. At present, the application of Unity’s products are no longer limited to games. In the field of automobile manufacturing, 14 domestic automakers, including NIO<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder />, XPeng<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder />, and Li Auto<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder />, are using Unity’s solutions such as smart consoles. In the field of building construction, Unity’s digital twin solutions have been applied to home appliance giant Haier, Hong Kong Airport, and Shanghai International Auto City.