Wanda Cinema announces that it will launch 100 VR experience areas in cinemas across the country in the next two to three years, and also open VR viewing business; Ali opens "Meditation of God" plan to build the world's largest 3D product library, HTC Wang Xuehong announced investment of 100 million US dollars to cultivate VR industry And eco-enterprise developments, and its latest earnings disclosure in early August has been a continuous loss for five quarters; ARM’s acquisition of 32 billion U.S. dollars in June has revealed a new architecture for the VR market; Samsung has spent huge sums of money on the Rio Olympic Games VR exclusive live broadcast rights; and Google has released a platform for VR devices Daydream ... ... These giants of the major strategic layout are invariably occurred in the year to date up to 9 months.
The current industry consensus is that VR and AR have the potential to become "the next major general-purpose computing platform." In particular, two years ago, after Facebook had invested $2 billion in the acquisition of Oculus, this was a small company founded by the founder of the 90-year-old founder who had fewer than 80 employees and had no formal products. This myth of “a night of riches†was born in the Internet startup companies in recent years, but now a large amount of capital flows from the original O2O and other fields into VR. IDEALENS co-CEO Liu Tiancheng told the Economic Observer that “capital and giants are rushing to eat VR, which is conducive to the rapid development of the entire industry, which is a difficult advantage for entrepreneurial enterprisesâ€.
In the pain of hard-to-breakthrough hardware technology, lack of content, and lack of a unified platform, Sue Obi's CEO Zhao Ning believes that today's Chinese VR companies are generally at a level where they are seeking breakthroughs in the next round, including hardware, Content and platforms are gradually exploring suitable systems for themselves. However, there are still gaps between hardware technology and Oculus, HTC and SONY. However, in today's random warfare, Chinese VR companies have local advantages and the backing of the national information industry base. Under the guidance of national policies, the industry is undergoing some new changes. For example, some companies are embarking on technological R&D and innovation, and some companies are working on the downstream. The industrial chain extends, and more companies are good at dancing with capital and trying to break through various limitations and problems. So, in the next VR era that can replace smartphones, can VR Motorola or Apple be born in China?
Hardware choice
At the end of 2015, Luo Yonghao, the founder of Hammer Technology Co., Ltd., recruited into the field of VR, was questioned by industry insiders for “too lateâ€, and why did the company launch low-cost Cardboard devices with mobile phones to stop high-end VR devices?
In the eyes of Yoshihide, who was born in 1987, entrepreneurs in the traditional field cannot imagine what kind of an ever-changing pattern entrepreneurs in the VR field are facing. Companies that have just been established for several years may have already carried out many corporate strategies. Sub-transition, "Today's VR is in the mobile phone era of Big Brother, in a very unstable period of growth." Yu Zheng said to the Economic Observer. He was founded in 2013 and is located in Beijing Zhongguancun Software Park. He was the founder of Termite Science and Technology. He has the personality of entrepreneurs of this age group - dropouts, entrepreneurship, obsessive new technology, bold adventures... and he is Fortunately, not only has obtained B round of financing, and its cooperation is the mobile phone and PC giants, including Lenovo, Asus, Hisense, Cool, one plus, but VR hardware choices in the three major directions still need him to face.
The latest report released by IDC, a market research organization, predicts that by 2020, the global augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) market revenue will be expanded from the current 5.2 billion U.S. dollars (over 30 billion yuan in size) to 162 billion U.S. dollars ( Trillion yuan scale). This means that the global AR/VR market will grow at nearly twice the annual growth rate in the next five years.
2016 was the first year of the VR industry, but the survival status of start-ups was not so optimistic. The former Sina co-president and CTO Xu Liangjie was shocked by a set of data released by the outside world. In 2014, there were more than 200 companies that do VR helmets in China. By the year of 2015, there were only more than 60 figures. The data indicates that more than 70% of VR helmet companies have gone bankrupt or transitioned. And this year, if there is no technical breakthrough, there will be a large number of VR helmet companies closed down.
Although renowned, the world's three major VR manufacturers Oculus, HTC, SONY have also launched their own PC-side helmet products this year, which is characterized by better immersion, experience better, but the price is expensive.
According to IDEALENS Liu Tiancheng, VR hardware includes PC-end helmets, mobile eyewear, and independently operable VR all-in-ones (moving VR helmets that incorporate display modules, computing chips, and batteries). Each path has its own uniqueness. Which of these advantages and disadvantages will become future trends is still unknown. IDEALENS, which was established in 2014, is currently focused on the VR machine and has been iterated twice.
It is worth noting that, compared with foreign countries, domestic VR companies have launched more VR all-in-one products. In addition to foreign countries, Intel has just launched a VR-one, Samsung is preparing or named "Odyssey" VR machine, including well-known large VR manufacturers Oculus, SONY, etc. have not introduced such products, but in addition to IDE-ALENS in China, there are 3GLASSES, big friends VR, fireworks workshop, storm mirror, Leshi, etc. According to incomplete statistics, about 30 companies publicly stated Do VR one machine.
Whether the VR integrated machine represents the future trend There are many “false propositions†in the industry. Liu Tiancheng believes that existence is reasonable, and the immersive experience of the all-in-one device is better than the VR glasses case and is more lightweight than the PC-side VR monitor.
A set of data or a side view of Liu Tiancheng's point of view, IDC recently provided reports that, in the market share of mobile VR and PC with host VR, Google's lower-cost Cardboard type VR accounted for a large proportion of market share . PC helmets accounted for only 3.8%. The mobile VR all-in-one machine accounted for only 0.5% in the first quarter of 2016, but it has grown rapidly since the first quarter.
Compared to IDEALENS, which focuses on the VR all-in-one, the fireworks studio that was born in the same year and is also involved in this area focuses more on the R&D and production of mobile glasses and the upstream and downstream industry chains that are extended. In the core path of making the volume small, widening the angle of view, and improving the resolution, Ant Vision Technology adopts a variety of strategies, including PC helmets, cases (glasses), and cameras. 3Glasses not only has VR mobile solutions, but also PC-end helmets. It can be seen that most of the domestic VR hardware companies do not dare to put Bao in a hardware direction, but they are fighting side by side under a diversified strategy.
It is worth noting that the disclosure of Google recently has stopped high-end VR devices. Previously, Google released Daydream and installed it in the latest Android operating system. The outside world is looking forward to high-end VR devices with Daydream resource platform, while VR device manufacturing companies such as Facebook, Samsung, and HTC gradually introduce higher-priced products. , Google stopped the development of the device, mainly because it is too difficult to achieve.
The process of VR hardware selection, which is full of unknown risks, has been devastated. Oculus is backed by Facebook, which costs hundreds of millions of dollars a year for R&D. In contrast, domestic startups are clearly unable to achieve such capital investment.
The founder of 3Glasses, Wang Jie, has been deeply cultivating in the field of VR for 14 years. He was the first to do a 3D simulation project. In 2012, the virtual reality helmet was established. At that time, the company had 120 employees and an annual turnover of tens of millions of yuan. In the following two years, in order to develop VR helmet products, the company had more than 1 million yuan monthly expenses, the staff team was extremely shrinking, the financial burden was overwhelmed, and Wang Jie was in debt of several million yuan.
Whether it is a domestic venture VR company or a foreign country, there are few real profits. Take the Storm Mirror as an example. Although its VR business has provided good support to the listed company's stock price, its business loss is a Dangerously, Fengfeng Technology Feng Xin had to reluctantly divest the Storm Mirror and Storm Technology, and the latter’s shareholding ratio fell below 20%.
Industrial chain extension
Many industry professionals believe that 2016 is the first year of VR and the VR outlet is coming. However, at this time, the global VR situation is still crowded and chaotic, and the real industry overlord has not yet emerged. This is the opportunity for Chinese VR companies. The enterprises' intensive efforts in subdividing the fields, extending the chain, and establishing their own systems are one of the operating characteristics of this multi-party melee situation.
The liaison interactive company that was established in 2007 was previously a company that focused on the development of the system's bottom layer. The VR Division was formally established in 2014. The deputy general manager of the company's intelligent hardware business unit and VR Ecosystem Co., Ltd. told the Economic Observer Now, the company has correspondingly laid out hardware, channels, platforms, and content in the VR field, including cooperation and self-study. Earlier this year, the liaison started to help China to launch the OSVR open source platform in China. Now they are the operators and sponsors of OSVR's overall cooperation in China.
Ju Dagong found that during his career planning career, he has gone through three platforms for open source, the first is the PC era, and the graphics card vendors are in a competitive relationship. At that time, there was a PC graphics evaluation company in Finland. There is an open source alliance that allows all IC companies, hardware companies, chip companies, and software companies to join and submit performance evaluations together to find cost-effective solutions. The second time was the era of smart phones. At the beginning, Google had to push Android systems around the world. At that time, there were competitors such as Saipan, Windows and iPhone. Google’s model was still to be an open source platform, including mobile phone manufacturers, chip companies, and content. Companies, global operators, etc. have joined in, thus laying the foundation for today's Android ecosystem. The first two open source alliances have been verified to be successful, and the third is the landing of the OSVR open source platform in China. If you can make a good landing, it means that the interaction between the hardware and software platform and the entire industry chain of the content will open up.
It is worth noting that the operational logic of liaison and interaction is not an example. Many VR hardware companies are also extending to the platform and content. They are trying to change the industry today by constantly iterative innovations in hardware technology, platform construction, and nurturing content developers. "Externally hot and cold" awkward situation.
For example, 3Glasses once vowed to be "the world's No. 1 VR platform." Yang Junrui, vice president of the company and deputy general manager of Vail Technologies, revealed that since 2014, he has contacted thousands of content developers. His mission is to better Serve these developers, let the content and hardware fit higher, continue to iterate hardware products, and constantly enrich the content resources, so as to achieve the user's pre-education.
Another hardware company, Li Meng, director of marketing at the Fireworks Workshop, told the Economic Observer that the Fireworks Workshop has been deeply cultivating the underlying algorithm of mobile VR. At present, the company has mastered the core technologies of mobile VR, such as the ATW algorithm and anti-distortion algorithm. The company mainly develops mobile VR systems and platforms, and extends from mobile VR platforms to hardware. However, there are no satisfactory mobile VR devices on the market. Therefore, in desperation, it began to improve its industrial chain system. Today it is a technology-driven startup company integrating mobile VR glasses, mobile VR platform, and VR content.
As for IDEALENS, founder Dr. Song Haitao participated in the pre-research work of Google Glass (AXS 0240) at Georgia Tech, and later returned to China to start a VR company. Liu Tiancheng, co-CEO of IDEALENS, recalled that It was very bitter, first to do the underlying algorithms and technologies, and later had its own products.At present, the company mainly focuses on the VR-one machine, so we have an open mind, and strive for more cooperation with the Friends of the business model, OEM, ODM is also the future development Focus. "
In addition to cooperating with a big group of mobile phone owners, in June this year, Antvision and 360 Huajiao reached a cooperation to open a new live mode of "VR + Live Broadcasting", which is regarded by ants as providing technical and hardware support; this year's European Cup, Ants cooperated with CCTV and launched the European Cup VR zone with VR technology to test the "sports + VR" model. In addition, the ant has built an ant sight hall on the content and has access to games on the Steam platform. In the AR glasses, holographic smart glasses, optical stealth is also developing technology.
In fact, in the 2B field there is no lack of companies that established earlier and lived moisturized. SEO O'Brien CEO Zhao Ning revealed to the Economic Observer that the company extended from traditional 3D theaters, 4D theaters, motion theaters, and theater curtains to VR. At the theme park, we hesitated to make a helmet last year, and finally gave up because our genes and advantages are in the solution of 2B's large-scale application. The CCTV, established in 2002, has been doing more in-depth development of the human-computer interaction engine, computer vision, and motion capture systems since the very beginning of the VRP virtual reality engine, and has already done more than 2,000 projects.
Another enterprise with the sword walking is Guangdong Virtual Reality Technology Co., Ltd. Most of the VR devices are more focused on output display technology, but interaction is also very important in VR, and the interaction mode has not yet been truly defined. Its market director Huang Kaimin told According to the Economic Observer, the interactive mode should be a hundred flowers bloom, naked hand recognition, voice recognition, handles, etc. Taking into account the current market conditions and people's habits, we believe that the handle will become the interactive mode of VR mainstream, so we are currently the main As a mobile VR input device, this product is currently mainly combined with B-side customers, providing input solutions. Due to its high accuracy and cost-effectiveness, it is popular among manufacturers.
Dance with capital
According to predictions by Analysys International Enfodesk, virtual reality (VR) revenue in China in 2016 will soar by 372.2% to 850 million yuan. The data shows that in 2015, the income of hardware, software, content, and other equipment related to virtual reality technology in China reached 180 million yuan. It has increased nearly fourfold compared to 2014, but this growth has not yet reached its peak.
What tempts Chinese VR entrepreneurs is that as early as two years ago Facebook's $2 billion acquisition of Oculus has created a miracle that can be imitated: Oculus founder, after 90, dropping out of school, starting a business, being sought after by capital, overnight riches... ...
Although 2016 is the first year of the VR industry, this does not mean that the VR trajectory was not long enough. In the 1960s, Ivan Sutherland, the father of virtual reality, published a paper titled “The Ultimate Reality†that describes VR technology. The concept of virtual reality was proposed by Lanier, the founder of VPL Corporation in the United States. Nintendo launched a VR device for the civilian market in the 1990s. However, due to the immaturity of technology, it was a cold encounter. In 2014, Facebook acquired the Oculus incident for US$2 billion, allowing capital and The public has a strong interest in VR and set off a new wave of VR boom.
Zuckerberg said externally, “One day, immersive virtual reality will become part of the daily lives of billions of people.†Chinese VR entrepreneurs who are in the midst of technical difficulties and capital blitz doubt never doubted. The veracity of this sentence, they rely on the huge size of the local consumer groups and the solid foundation of the information industry, they are looking for their own survival space from the perspective of technological innovation, the extension of the upstream and downstream, and dance with the capital, in order to eventually become VR In the field of Motorola or Apple.
It is worth noting that Internet giants headed by international giants such as Face-book, Google, Intel, Samsung, and domestic BAT, as well as mobile phones and PC companies such as Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo and Asus, are gradually acquiring VR through self-construction or investment. Admission ticket. The capital investment situation reflects a major trend in the VR field: Before the start-up companies were mostly concentrated in the hardware field, they have changed dramatically since the beginning of this year. According to incomplete statistics from the Investment Research Institute, from the perspective of the number of investment cases in the VR industry, investment in hardware equipment last year accounted for 53%, which fell to 29% in the first half of this year. Last year, the content production was 36%, and the distribution platform was 11%. In the first half of this year, the content production and distribution platform rose to 50% and 21% respectively.
Because there are not many high-quality projects in China, many capital giants have set their sights on foreign countries. According to statistics, in the first quarter of this year, a total of 1.7 billion U.S. dollars were invested in VR/AR, of which nearly 1 billion U.S. dollars came from China. Of this $1 billion, more than half of the money goes to foreign VR/AR companies.
Another good news is that at the beginning of this year, the Institute of Electronic Technology and Standardization of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the “Virtual Reality Industry Development White Paper 5.0â€, which pointed out the bottlenecks and problems faced by its development. This will accelerate the formulation of a road map for the Improve the industry environment of the relevant standards system to assist the healthy development of the VR industry.