Chinese tech giant Tencent has partnered with the United Nations to host online videoconferences, it has been confirmed.
The United Nations aims to use an international version of the platform, Tencent Meeting, along with VooV Meeting and WeChat Work, Tencent said in a company statement. The programmes will be launched with Tencent's Artificial Intelligence Simultaneous Interpretation to host online conversations, according to the UN.
Tencent Meeting launched in December last year, earning over 10m active users, with VooV meeting reaching 100 countries and regions.
— Charles Mok 莫乃光 (@charlesmok) April 1, 2020
The UN will ask millions of people what the world may look like in 25 years, as well as how international cooperation should work to solve global challenges such as climate change and pandemics such as COVID-19, the disease causing the coronavirus outbreak.
The UN was "grateful" for Tencent's support for the UN75 initiative, Fabrizio Hochschild, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Preparations for the Commemoration of the United Nations’ 75th Anniversary said in a press statement.
"Their dialogue tools and videoconferencing services will greatly enhance our capacity to reach out to more people across the globe. Tencent's technology and global outreach is particularly important to reach young people. As one of the world's largest tech companies, Tencent's support for the UN75 campaign sets an important example."
Tencent president Martin Lau said in a statement that he hoped the platform would help bring the global community together, adding that such collaboration played a "vital role" in human well-being as well as the fight against the coronavirus.
— Tencent 腾讯 (@TencentGlobal) March 31, 2020
"Tencent is [honoured] to participate and facilitate UN75 global conversations. We will spare no effort in providing technical solutions to support online meetings and idea exchanges for the UN, with the aim of bringing the global village even closer together and overcoming global threats through extensive dialogue and cooperation," Martin Lau said.
The news comes after the Chinese tech giant announced measures to boost connectivity overseas, namely by rolling out Tencent Meeting and VooV apps in over 100 countries, to boost connectivity for users and telecommuters amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite trade restrictions and the ongoing pandemic, Huawei Technologies announced it would boost research and development investment, currently at $20bn USD in 2019, as well as collaborate with scientists and researchers, namely in biomedicine, to implement artificial intelligence tools to fight the virus.
