The VR concept is very hot. What do investors and practitioners think about it?

VR has been very popular recently. In addition to Samsung once again pouring money into VR and announcing its investment in Fove, an eye-tracking technology company, foreign Internet and IT giants such as Facebook, Microsoft, Sony, and YouTube have all begun to invest heavily in building VR businesses. This has also directly led to the popularity of the VR concept in the domestic market. The direct beneficiary is Baofeng Video. Under the concept of VR Magic Mirror, Baofeng Video has become a legend in the A-share market with 33 consecutive daily limits.

It is reported that iQiyi and LeTV have already started to develop VR videos and hardware. So, has the VR popularization storm arrived? Let's take a look at VR from the perspectives of practitioners and investors.

Practitioners and investors: VR's future is definitely not a "roller coaster"

Regarding the current status of VR, there are two groups in the industry: "cheers" and "pessimism". Cheers believe that VR will bring changes to videos, games, education, and medical care, and has unlimited commercial value. Pessimists believe that the VR hardware experience is too poor, the visual delay of the picture may even make people dizzy, and the current VR industry lacks content and applications.

Peng Fan, COO of Qixin Yiwei, the leader of eye-control technology, said in an interview with Sohu Technology that VR is more than just a roller coaster experience. Many startups have made their first fortune in education, real estate, and entertainment. "Most of those who are pessimistic are outsiders." Peng Fan said that the development of VR will not be affected by public opinion, just like the taxi-hailing software. Everyone questioned its policy system and profit model, but no one could stop it from flourishing. "

Jiang Liping, investment director of Qibin Capital, believes that the VR industry is in its early stages of development and the lack of industrial chains requires a long process of improvement. However, all investors are optimistic about the prospects of VR, and it may even become a new way of socializing.

Peng Fan said that the uneven quality of VR hardware has indeed affected users' favorability towards VR, and most users have only tried some entry-level products. However, entry-level products will not be eliminated in the short term. "He can educate novice users about the existence of VR, and also educate novice users that VR products like 99 yuan are not easy to use."

Lou Chi, CEO of Fireworks Workshop, said that the only comparable product for domestic VR hardware is the Gear VR, a collaboration between Oculus and Samsung. Currently, there are products on the market with poor user experience, partly because of problems with the optical solution of the hardware and partly because of problems with software delays.

Investors: Focus more on the peripherals of VR industry

At a VR investment evaluation meeting held recently, among the 9 VR companies participating in the evaluation, Leke VR was considered by investors to be the most down-to-earth VR project. Whether VR is "down-to-earth" is also a factor that investors value most. Although investors are very interested in VR projects in their early stages of development, they are also very cautious when it comes to investing real money. In the field of VR hardware, there have been cases where investors cried out that they were fooled. Because the characteristic of VR is to bring people an "immersive" experience, it has a very wide range of applications and has now blossomed everywhere, entering the video, game, education, medical and other industries.

"First of all, we will not invest in VR hardware. What we value is whether the VR project has long-term development." Jiang Liping, investment director of Qibin Capital, said in an interview with Sohu Technology. An Le, partner of Hejun, holds the same view. He believes that investors' investment in VR hardware mainly depends on whether they have their own core technology, but this year investors are more interested in VR industry peripherals rather than hardware.

Haowei Chuangshi CEO Yang Wei believes that VR hardware is meaningless for startups. Currently, Facebook's Oculus, Samsung, Microsoft, and Sony are all making hardware to the extreme. Before he chose VR education, he had been thinking about how VR should be presented and how to commercialize VR.

Yang Wei's team is a group of people with a background in the education industry. They have infiltrated the "immersive" experience of VR into the traditional teaching field and earned their first pot of gold in VR teaching.

Leke VR is targeting the entertainment field. According to Leke CEO He Wenyi, the company has already made a profit and is about to receive an angel investment of 5 million. Leke will provide VR content and technology to 1,000 offline VR experience centers next year. It has also formed strategic cooperation with many film and television companies and game company Tianshen Interactive.

"VR will be in a growth period in the next 5-10 years, and its market space will reach the current share of the domestic film market. Currently, China's movie box office has exceeded 30 billion," said He Wenyi.

Practitioners: VR threshold is not low

According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 90 VR hardware entrepreneurs in China, and they are currently mainly engaged in the development of the most basic entry-level products as VR mobile phone accessories. It is still difficult for domestic VR hardware to directly compete with foreign products such as Oculus and Samsung.

Lingjing CEO Zhang Shubin said that domestic VR hardware has chosen a different route from foreign countries. "Foreign countries are driven by technology, while China's market is driven by business and users. Low prices are more in line with China's development needs."

But he also believes that the current low-priced VR glasses (99 yuan product) are a market strategy, and products and prices cannot be equated. Companies are more likely to cultivate the market through low prices.

"The key to creating a good experience and bringing amazing feelings to users lies in software algorithms." Zhang Shubin said that the frame of the glasses is simple, but how to coordinate the optical system and algorithm is difficult. A good VR hardware depends on optics, structure, understanding of the product, and support for software development and driver development.

At present, companies engaged in VR hardware are divided into two categories: one is companies with content resources, a typical representative of which is Baofeng Technology under Baofeng Video; the other is companies that possess certain technologies in the VR field.

Peng Fan believes that the reason why VR hardware causes dizziness and unreality is that there are still some unresolved technical problems. "Eye tracking technology can solve two major problems in the field of virtual reality, and realize eye control operation, which greatly facilitates virtual reality interaction." He revealed that Qixin Yiwei has launched its own VR hardware PlayGlass virtual reality glasses, and aGlass with eye tracking technology is also under development.

Practitioners: Hardware must come before applications and content

The development prospects of the VR industry are unquestionable, and it is currently concentrated in the three major areas of video, games, and education. It is an indisputable fact that VR development is currently lacking in content and applications.

But Zhang Shubin believes that hardware and content have a "chicken and egg" relationship. Only with good hardware and more users can more VR content producers and application developers be attracted.

Lou Chi believes that the giants in the game and video fields are all paying attention to VR, such as Giant's "3D Journey" VR version of the online game, and the recent Avengers also had a VR trailer. The reason why the outside world cannot feel it is because the profit model is not clear and the user base is not large enough.

“Maybe this year at a press conference of some Internet company, we’ll see slogans like giving away a certain amount of VR videos for free with a one-year membership. Right now, the big guys haven’t made big investments because they’re waiting for the hardware to mature. The uneven quality of hardware products on the market is precisely the obstacle that hinders the explosion of VR. Once the hardware can meet people’s expectations for VR, game videos will appear in large numbers,” Peng Fan believes.

In the VR field, iQiyi has already built a VR video library, YouTube has begun to support panoramic videos, and Sony's games are also enriching the VR content market.

Zhang Shubin revealed that VR hardware companies have begun to drive the layout of video companies, and Lingjing has begun to negotiate cooperation with iQiyi, Sohu, and LeTV. "Video content will be faster than games." He said that the VR trend has arrived, and this year VR will expand from a niche to a larger scale, and will be popularized to the general public in 2-3 years.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.