The United Nations (UN) has announced that it will use software from China’s Tencent to host online conversations ahead of its 75th anniversary.
The intergovernmental organization will use the international version of Tencent Meeting, VooV Meeting along with WeChat Work and Tencent Artificial Intelligence Simultaneous Interpretation to host “thousands of online conversations” now that it can no longer due so in person as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
Special adviser to the secretary-general on the preparations for the commemoration of the United Nations’ 75th anniversary, Fabrizio Hochschild explained how Tencent’s tools will allow it to reach a wider audience as well as young people, saying:
“We are grateful to Tencent for their generous support to the UN75 initiative. 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 partnership
The UN plans to use Tencent’s technology to reach out to millions of people in order to find out what they think the world will look like in 25 years. It also wants to know what role they think international cooperation should play in solving global challenges such as climate change and pandemics.
Tencent Meeting launched last December but it has already gained over 10m daily active users. The international version of the software, VooV Meeting is currently available in over 100 countries and regions.
In a press release announcing its partnership with the UN, President of Tencent, Martin Lau explained that it will help bring the global community closer together, saying:
“Global collaboration not only plays a vital role in human well-being and our future, but is also the key to fighting the current global pandemic. Tencent is honored 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.”
Via ZDNet
