Digital technology is becoming much more integrated to people's lives, as evidenced by not only the rise of the global e-commerce market, social sharing and live broadcast but also in the gradual digitalization of industries around the globe. In view of these developments, Tencent Cloud, the cloud business of Tencent, today announced the launch of a new initiative called V+ Challenge (Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Challenge for V+ Real-Time Internet), a global audio/ video solutions contest that calls on participants to innovate on use cases and best practices based on Tencent Cloud's high-quality audio and video cloud technologies.

Real-Time Internet Dominates Trends

As digital life evolves, users expect multimedia with wider range and higher quality. Audio and video technologies are rapidly moving towards ultra-high definition, low latency, deep immersion and strong interaction with the dawning of a new digital innovation era – the "Real-time Internet".

The V+ Challenge is designed to empower entrepreneurs and businesses across all industries into expanding their digital knowledge and experience, effectively providing them tools to adapt to the fast-evolving world of entrepreneurship. Digitalization and the further strengthening of real-time Internet are among the most prominent drivers in the transformation of the business landscape, as highlighted by the accelerating development and popularization of the digital economy and industrial integration.

Take On The Challenge

The Challenge solicits innovative solutions and best practices in the audio/video field globally. Businesses and entrepreneurs who want to take on the V+ Challenge – and aspire to receive USD30,000 credits worth of Tencent Cloud services – are required to have been in business for no more than five years and are between the seed Series C rounds of funding. Winners will win an opportunity to gain more than 20 million exposures at Tencent Cloud's Chinese and global websites and media resources, top industry conferences and team interviews as well as professional entrepreneurship guidance from industry guests in the final roadshow stage, which will be held on January 11, 2022.

Contestants can capitalize on Tencent Cloud's RT-ONE™ network, which supports a new all-in-one service for audio and visual communication, PaaS audio/video platform, and service matrix, as well as Tencent Cloud's complete family of PaaS products, including Tencent Real-Time Communication (TRTC), Cloud Streaming Services (CSS), Video on Demand (VOD), Instant Messaging (IM), Tencent Push Notification Service (TPNS), and Cloud Rendering Service (CRS), to help developers create live streaming, interaction, call, UGSV (User Generated Short Video), and other audio/video applications with speed and ease. Contestants can innovate in the fields of new social networking, office collaboration, education, finance, healthcare, corporate services, public utilities, smart devices, industrial internet of things (IoT), and other relevant industries.

The power of Tencent Audio and Video Cloud

With more than 22 years of experience and technologies in the field, Tencent Cloud is the world's first public cloud vendor to launch the RT-ONE™ network that integrates the CDN streaming media distribution network, IM network and TRTC network. Tencent Cloud has also been supporting 90% of China's audio and video customers in their cloud-based innovation.

For overseas businesses, Tencent Cloud has adapted targeted, localized technology and algorithms to meet the unique needs of individual regions and markets. For instance, when it comes to video encoding and decoding, Tencent Cloud's specific media processing products offer a higher quality visual experience with a lower bit rate – a 30 to 50% lower bit rate bandwidth under the same subjective image quality. This significantly improves the consistency and image quality of users in areas with less robust telecommunication networks, such as Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

Poshu Yeung, Senior Vice President, Tencent Cloud International, said, "As one of our many ways to address the ever-changing business landscape through digital and cloud technology, Tencent Cloud looks forward to giving the entrepreneurs of today more power to keep their businesses moving at a fast pace. This also demonstrates what companies can truly achieve on a global scale when working with Tencent Cloud, in time with the rise of e-commerce, pan-entertainment and various other fields that are being consolidated by the capabilities of real-time Internet."

Along with the rollout of the V+ challenge, an activation ceremony as well as the MoU signing of the Tencent Cloud Audio and Video V+ Ecological Cooperation with different partners such as global Digital TV leader SDMC were held on the same day, with a shared aim to expand the influence of Tencent Cloud Audio and Video in mid-to-long-tail enterprises and go overseas.