Chinese tech conglomerates Alibaba and Tencent recently rebranded their NFT properties. They called NFTs “digital collectibles” amid the Chinese state media’s overt criticism of NFTs.
Alipay, the mobile payment application operated by Alibaba’s fintech partner Ant Group, has changed the name of NFT collections on its platform to digital collections together with Tencent.
Alipay is actively rolling out NFT artworks built on AntChain. It sold NFT wallpapers for its interface in June and August, and last month created NFTs containing the torch of the 2022 Asian Games.
In July, Alibaba’s online marketplace Taobao sold NFTs in partnership with Blockchain-based development platform Near Protocol at the annual Taobao Maker Festival.
To address concerns surrounding the rebranding move, AntChain said on Monday that it conducts its business around digital collectibles in strict compliance with laws and regulations;
Huanhe, an NFT application that Tencent launched in August, has also removed NFT references from the application.
A spokesperson for Tencent is Forkast. He told News:
Although tech giants in China have embraced the idea of NFT, or “digital collectibles”, they have avoided offering resale features to users due to regulatory concerns.