Original technology cloud report.
In 1992, science fiction writer Stephenson described a virtual online world parallel to real life in the novel "Snow Crash", where people can work and entertain through digital images. And this online world is named "Metaverse", which is what we often call the Metaverse these days.
In 2018, "Ready Player One" came out. Woz, a big boy who had no hope in real life and was addicted to games, successfully passed the game and became a superhero in the virtual world by relying on his in-depth analysis of the virtual game designers. In the contrast between reality and virtuality, the metaverse elements in the film have once again become a hot topic on social media.
And just as Woz needs to wear a VR device to enter the game, the development of the Metaverse concept is also inseparable from the promotion of AR/VR technology.
Recently, as domestic and overseas giants such as Facebook, ByteDance, and Tencent compete to expand into the Metaverse, the VR industry is also known as a key to opening the door to the next new world.
Analyst agency Mordor Intelligence reports that the VR/AR market size will reach US$184.66 billion in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 48.7% between 2021 and 2026.
**VR产业兴衰史：2016年爆火、2018年遇冷**
VR/AR was proposed as a new technology in 1968. It was not until 2014 that the VR/AR concept officially entered the market and was considered to be the next generation general computing platform to replace smartphones.
Google, Facebook, and Microsoft have successively entered the VR/AR field, and many major manufacturers such as Sony, Samsung, and HTC have also launched related hardware products. The popularity of the VR/AR market once reached a high point.
In 2016, Sony, HTC, and Oculus launched the first-generation VR terminals PSVR, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift for the mass consumer market. Microsoft also launched Hololens, an AR terminal targeting vertical industry markets. VR/AR devices began to emerge in large numbers.
At the same time, major VR offline experience stores are also competing to open. Upstream and downstream of the industry, the B-side and C-side user markets are being developed at the same time. 2016 is not only the battle between PC and mobile terminals, but also the year of explosive growth for VR.
However, at that time, the bottlenecks of network, hardware and content had not been broken, the industry's business model was immature, the "bright future" of VR/AR was not as good as expected, and the popularity of the capital market plummeted. In 2018, the VR/AR industry receded and entered a cold winter.
However, there are still many manufacturers that have not given up and continue to explore and release new products. Based on the lessons learned from the failures of previous products, VR-related technologies have begun to gradually improve, and the industry chain has gradually matured.
At the same time, with the official deployment of global 5G, VR/AR has regained attention as a major commercial scenario of 5G networks, and the industry has returned to its upward trend.
In 2020, the maturity of all links in the VR/AR industry chain has increased, and the epidemic has promoted an increase in home demand. The demand for consumer-grade VR equipment represented by QculusQuest2 released by Facebook has grown strongly.
Generally speaking, the industry generally believes that the VR/AR industry has now emerged from the trough of the bubble burst and is in a period of steady growth and recovery. When the performance or effects of new VR/AR technologies can finally meet consumer needs, they will enter the substantial stage of popularization and production.
VR industry technology upgrades and becomes the darling of capital again
With the development of technology, the VR industry has ushered in significant upgrades and iterations on the product side. Previously, VR offline entertainment went through the egg chair era (providing strong stimulating content and poor device experience), the pan-VR experience (arcade VR, multiplayer online FPS, multiplayer theater, etc.) era, and then entered the VR large space era.
At this time, VR products can already be based on large-space laser positioning and motion capture technology to achieve free movement and multi-person interaction in large spaces by combining headsets, handles, and various props, adding VR's sense of movement and immersion to the visual experience. feel. This is incomparable to the previous generation of traditional head-mounted VR products.
Improvements in hardware performance and price reductions have expanded the market for VR headsets. Among them, according to Evercore investment bank, Oculus Quest 2 sales are expected to exceed 8 million units in the first year.
Goertek, a supplier of VR products, expects its performance in the first three quarters to increase by 59.38%-71.64% compared with the same period last year. The performance changes are mainly due to the increase in sales revenue of its VR virtual reality and other products and the improvement in profitability.
IDC forecast report shows that VR shipments will grow by 46.2% in 2021 and will grow at a compound growth rate of 48% by 2024.
At the same time, since this year, as domestic and overseas giants such as Facebook, ByteDance, and Tencent compete to lay out the "Metaverse", the VR industry has once again become the darling of the capital market.
From the perspective of investment and financing, the “number one players” in the VR field have successively announced that they have received large-scale financing of 100 million yuan. In January 2021, iQiyi Intelligence, which focuses on the VR field, announced the completion of hundreds of millions of yuan in Series B financing; in March 2021, Pico announced the completion of a Series B+ financing of 242 million yuan; in May 2021, VR technology service provider STEPVR received Nearly 100 million yuan in financing, etc.
On August 29, Pico issued an all-staff letter disclosing that it had been acquired by ByteDance. According to data from research firm IDC, last year, Pico hardware sales ranked first in China's VR market share. Before this acquisition, Goertek Group Co., Ltd. was Pico's major shareholder, owning 26% of the shares.
Goertek is also an important OEM for VR products, with major customers including Facebook’s Oculus, Sony, and Pico.
The next day, this investment also triggered a cascading effect in the secondary market. Many A-share VR/AR concept stocks moved: Baotong Technology and Jinlong Electromechanical hit the daily limit; Goertek once hit the daily limit during the session.
In terms of content, several VR games such as "Beat Saber" and "Half-Life: Alex" were born and became phenomenon-level games. Among them, "Beat Saber" sold more than 2 million copies and generated revenue of more than 60 million US dollars; Valve launched ’s first VR game “Half-Life: Alex” has added one million users to the Steam VR platform. Domestically, "Contractors" developed by Nanjing Caveman Studio was launched on the Quest platform at the end of the year, with revenue reaching US$1 million within 45 days of launch.
The success of game content has brought new directions to the creation of VR-related content and will also stimulate the creation of more new content.
VR is widely used and projects are implemented in many fields
In addition to game content, domestic companies have also conducted various explorations in the implementation of VR projects: such as live broadcast of events, concerts, etc., shooting event scenes from multiple angles; as well as film and television, e-commerce, education, live broadcast, mobile terminals, industry , medical, military and many other aspects.
Currently, affected by the epidemic, the world is facing a serious health crisis. With the improvement of Internet infrastructure, technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and VR augmented reality are becoming more mature. Technology has become the most powerful force for mankind to deal with this round of epidemic. helper.
Among them, Shell Group’s early deployment of AR augmented reality technology provides manufacturing companies with experience that can be used to overcome the epidemic and maintain their advantages in fierce market competition.
For example, in order to ensure that the oil supply would not be interrupted due to faults, terminal manager Morkel chose to install a head-mounted computer on a safety helmet and transmit the first-person view of the scene to IT experts in Belgium.
Experts provide remote voice guidance through head-mounted computers and perform AR annotation on real-time images to help identify the crux and solve the fault.
Jens Thun, head of digitalization of trading and supply automation at Shell, said: “Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were doubts about whether head-mounted computers could help work. Now, this technology will permanently change the way we work.”
In addition, there are now data centers that use VR glasses technology to visualize data and servers with the help of VR headsets.
Specifically, data centers must be designed in a way that they can operate efficiently, and these data centers need to be modular in design, with features such as flexibility, energy efficiency, and security.
But creating such a design will take a lot of time. It is difficult to pinpoint certain flaws that may exist before the design is implemented and tested.
However, businesses can virtually visualize different designs and test them with the help of VR. Therefore, with the help of VR, enterprises can choose the best design for their data centers.
With the development of technology, some smart wearable devices can also be used in industrial usage scenarios.
In this year’s 14th Five-Year Plan, the country vigorously advocates the development of new technology applications such as 3D/VR to help the industry upgrade. It is believed that as VR/3D technology matures and hardware equipment configurations continue to be upgraded, the VR industry will usher in development.
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