From the current market situation, from the promotion of the functions of mobile VR devices to the vertical application of VR, to the development of VR mobile phones, relevant companies are looking for various breakthroughs. Among them, Huawei, Samsung, Xiaomi, LeTV, etc. may all launch VR phones, and the listed company Baoqianli (600074, SH) also launched a VR phone on October 24.
Chen Yanghui, director and vice president of Baoqianli, said in an interview with the reporter of "Daily Economic News", "The giants in the mobile phone industry have begun to deploy VR mobile phones. They have taken a fancy to the market potential of VR mobile phones. VR mobile phones will provide interactive marketing for enterprises and even the Internet. Red Broadcasting Industry provides new mobile live broadcast equipment."
Regarding the argument that the industry is cold, Lou Chi, CEO of the VR company Fireworks Workshop, believes that “for some VR teams may be going through a cold winter, it is inevitable that teams that do not know the market, environment, or even the basic concepts will be eliminated, but the VR industry is cold. It is irresponsible, the market is still very hot, and mobile VR will become more and more popular."
Capital withdraws from individual VR projects
2016 is known as the first year of VR, and VR has been chased by the market and capital. Goldman Sachs predicted in the "VR and AR: Understanding the Next General Computing Platform" report that by 2025, the market for VR and AR will reach US$80 billion (approximately RMB 541.6 billion).
According to statistics from iiMedia Research, the size of China's VR industry market in 2015 was 1.54 billion yuan, and it is expected to reach 5.66 billion yuan in 2016, with a growth rate of 268.3%; it is expected to reach 55.63 billion yuan by 2020, with huge development potential.
The reporter has noticed that into the second half of 2016, public opinion has become increasingly pessimistic about the VR industry, and there is a saying that "winter is coming". According to the Blue Whale TMT report, there were more than 200 companies making VR helmets in my country in 2014, and there were only more than 60 left in 2015, and most of the VR equipment companies have died.
At the same time, capital's enthusiasm for the VR industry has also begun to "cool down." Statistics from the 36Kr Research Institute show that the VR field has exploded since the end of 2015, and the financing scale has jumped to nearly 900 million yuan, which is higher than the sum of the previous three quarters. In the first quarter of 2016, the total financing scale reached 816 million yuan. However, by the second quarter of 2016, only four or five VR startups had received financing. In some projects, capital has already withdrawn.
"I believe that a large number of companies or teams will die in the second half of this year. For some VR teams, it may be going through a cold winter." Lou Chi believes that the influx of large-scale capital and talent will undoubtedly promote the VR industry. Development, but it will also accelerate the generation of bubbles. It is as if the company that originally made games has also transformed into VR, and even the basic concepts are not clear, so it is inevitable to be eliminated. There are also companies that pretend to be VR with non-compliant products, which is also harmful to the industry. These companies and teams "winter", for the entire industry, "ushers in spring."
VR companies try to differentiate their play
Although the downsizing of Storm Mirror is not enough to predict the coming of the VR industry's cold winter, it also reveals the problems that exist in the industry. Leifeng.com's article believes that Storm Mirror is still only a mobile VR box from the first to the fifth generation.
When the entry-level VR box was cold, differentiation became a new approach for mobile VR manufacturers and start-up teams. And mobile VR devices are still hot products.
Among them, starting from the user experience of mobile VR devices, the extremely screen VR glasses developed by Fireworks Workshop focus on solving the problems of delay and dizziness. At the same time, in addition to self-produced original games, third-party developers such as Huskies have also been introduced.
In addition, the vertical application of VR technology is also one of the breakthrough points. Recently, a reporter from "Daily Economic News" visited the "Double Innovation Week" in Shenzhen and found that Ant Financial had launched the VR payment product VR Pay. The reporter found on-site experience that VR Pay can be used to pay in virtual environments such as shopping, live broadcasts, games, etc., without removing the VR glasses, taking out the mobile phone, and opening the payment application software, but directly through touch, staring, nodding and other interactions. Way to complete the payment in 3D virtual reality.
The "mix and match" of VR and smartphones has also become a popular VR segment. The reporter noticed that at this year's I/O Developers Conference, Google launched Daydream, a mobile VR platform, and mobile phone manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, LG, Xiaomi, and Huawei have entered the Daydream plan for the first time. Baochenli, a listed company whose main business is electronic video, also launched a VR phone on October 24.
"The giants in the mobile phone industry have begun to deploy VR phones, which is to take a fancy to the market potential of VR phones. First of all, on the C side, there will be millions of consumers considering VR phones when changing phones; and on the B side, VR phones It will provide new mobile live broadcast equipment for corporate interactive marketing and even the online celebrity live broadcast industry." Chen Yanghui told reporters.
