51World to accelerate development of digital twin

Chinese tech company 51World has unveiled its latest technology platform that can make it easier and more efficient to develop digital twin applications, as part of its broader push to tap into the metaverse.

A digital twin is a real-time virtual representation of a real-world physical system or process that serves as the indistinguishable digital counterpart of it for practical purposes, such as system simulation, integration, testing, monitoring, and maintenance.

The concept of digital twin is closely related to the metaverse, a tech buzzword that promises a digital world created by technology such as virtual reality and augmented reality.

Li Yi, founder and CEO of 51World, said "We aim to create a complete virtual world by 2030, and we will provide digital twin services for 1 million enterprises and users."

According to him, the world is entering the Web 3.0 era, which refers to the third generation of the evolution of web technologies, with content presented in multiple formats of graphics, text, video and real-time 3D interaction.

The company unveiled the new platform 51WDP, which makes it easier and more efficient to develop digital twin applications. It is a PaaS platform. PaaS refers to platform-as-a-service, a form of cloud computing that enables software developers to build, run, and manage software applications easily, without worrying about underlying infrastructure.

Li said China Telecom's branch in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province developed its products in five days with three people through the 51WDP platform, and the development efficiency of the entire product has been improved nearly 10 times more than previous efficiencies.

"Starting this month, we will gradually release digital twin maps of 100 cities," said Li, adding that the company will also offer different cloud services to meet enterprises' needs.