Agora's Real-Time Engagement Platform Named Finalist in Workplace Category of Fast Company's 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards

From a 3D printed vaccine patch to an electric truck, a seawater-powered lamp, and countless other bold innovations, the sixth annual awards honor the products, concepts, companies, policies, and designs that are driving change, tackling issues from climate change to inequality, and so much more.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The winners of Fast Company's 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards were announced today, honoring clean technology, innovative corporate initiatives, brave new designs for cities and buildings, and other creative works that are supporting the growth of positive social innovation, tackling social inequality, climate change, and public health crises.

Agora's Real-Time Engagement Platform has been named a finalist in the Workplace category for its bleeding edge technology that bridges the gap between metaverse virtual worlds and the physical one, delivering connectivity from one-to-one to one-to-many using smartphone apps and desktop apps. By integrating Agora's Video Software Developer Kit (SDK) companies operating in the metaverse can provide users outside it the same immersive experience on any device, from anywhere.

This innovative and world changing technology is unprecedented and already making an impact globally. The ability to connect metaverses, and connect to a metaverse, without expensive equipment will be democratizing for those who either don't have access or can't afford it. As more work is performed within these virtual worlds anyone with a web browser will be able to participate. This application will be leveraged for health and wellness, education, social, gaming and much more.

Now in its sixth year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 39 winners, 350 finalists, and more than 600 honorable mentions—with climate, social justice, and AI and data among the most popular categories. A panel of eminent Fast Company editors and reporters selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 2,997 entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology, health, social justice, and more. In addition, several new categories have been added this year including climate, nature, water, and workplace. The 2022 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Switzerland to Hong Kong to Australia.

Fast Company's Summer 2022 issue (on newsstands May 10, 2022) will showcase some of the world's most inventive entrepreneurs and companies tackling global challenges. The issues highlight, among others, probiotics for coral reefs, easy-to-assemble kit homes for refugees or disaster survivors, a 3D printed vaccine patch, an electric truck, a system to heat homes from the waste heat of a name-brand factory, and prosecutor-initiated resentencing for overly long prison sentences.

"At Agora, our mission is to make real-time engagement ubiquitous, allowing everyone to interact with anyone, anytime and anywhere," said Tony Zhao, founder and CEO of Agora. "We're thrilled to have Fast Company recognize our work and will continue to take the lead on video, voice and live interactive streaming technology, helping developers deliver rich in-app experiences for the Metaverse and beyond."

"We are consistently inspired by the novelty and creativity that people are applying to solve some of our society's most pressing problems, from shelter to the climate crisis. Fast Company relishes its role in amplifying important, innovative work to address big challenges," says David Lidsky, interim editor-in-chief of Fast Company. "Our journalists have identified some of the most ingenious initiatives to launch since the start of 2021, which we hope will both have a meaningful impact and lead others to join in being part of the solution."

About the World Changing Ideas Awards: World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company's major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors choose winners, finalists, and honorable mentions based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With the goals of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start working on solving the problems that affect us all.

About Agora

Agora is the leading Real-time Engagement Platform as a Service (RTE PaaS) company. Agora's mission is to make real-time engagement ubiquitous, allowing everyone to interact with anyone, in any application, anytime and anywhere. Agora's platform provides developers with simple, flexible and powerful application programming interfaces, or APIs, to embed real-time video and voice engagement experiences into their applications.

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