"VR 2014" in the world of storms, what is a mirror?

from the perspectives of display equipment, interactive products, content production platform, transmission technology, cloud service, media and distribution.

VR 2014 is a series of reports on virtual reality startups in the 2014, which will present 2014 years of China's virtual reality entrepreneurial ecology from the perspectives of display devices, interactive products, content production platforms, transmission technologies, cloud services, media and distribution. If you are also a VR entrepreneur with good VR ventures and ideas, have an understanding of the industry, welcome to email Contact (syq#36kr.com).

This September, the storm audio and video into the field of intelligent hardware, the release of virtual reality glasses "Storm Mirror", with the development of the Storm video Magic Mirror App, users on the mobile phone to see the film can achieve IMAX effect, the price of 99 yuan.

Storm audio and video CEO Fengxin, called it a new venture. VR Entrepreneurship 100 days later, looking back, listen to Fengxin talk, in the storm of the world what is a mirror of what kind of existence?

New attempts

The establishment of a decade of the storm has accumulated a lot of users, but the Chinese online video industry competition, the early video site or prostitution for the Godfather, or alive by the copyright war dragged to death, or constantly put forward a new concept to maintain the share price. The storm that was founded in 2005, through the internet age, the mobile internet age, is now in such an environment that it needs new opportunities and transformations.

In fact, there have been some attempts before the storm, but the previous project and the core business of the storm is not that much of a relationship but Oculus Rift appeared, Gear VR came, cardboard also sold a lot of. This time it's different. It is no wonder that the movie content storm has, the user base storm also has, now the Storm mirror in doing things, the general situation is software + hardware + content and service, essentially or video playback and display, is the old line of the storm.

The market has a lot of display equipment, foreign companies such as Facebook, Samsung and other giants, the domestic manufacturing advantages, do such equipment is not difficult, the storm mirror face pressure is not small. The first generation of the magic mirror, there are many problems. After three months of improvement, the second generation of magic mirror to increase the pupil distance adjustment, object spacing adjustment functions, in the heat dissipation, sponge, optics and other design has also been improved.

Hardware Magic mirror Gear VR, cardboard, can not produce content, also will not play content, no ability to lock users, just software and services a carrier, mobile phone software and content is the core. This thing fengxin before thinking clearly, "only then there is no suitable display equipment, this has a magic mirror." Finally the content of the mirror is still important to the software, the software is important to the hardware. "Since October, the Storm mirror app has been iterating over more than 10 editions, essentially two editions a week." However, many VR enthusiasts still feel that there is a gap between their expectations.

The progress in content is difficult to control within the storm. By the beginning of this month, there were nearly 10,000 movies on the Storm Mirror, 360° scene 36, 360° Pictures 40, VR game demo 4. But that is clearly not enough. According to 1 million of the hardware sales, the storm Mirror also needs to find 100 filming partners, 100 game makers, 10 "channel tool" manufacturers. Now the VR industry in China is still in its infancy, and it is not easy to find so many partners. At this stage, the storm will buy the best panoramic equipment available on the market, to the shooting team, but the effect is very general.

Dilemma Choice

Oculus VR's consumer version has not yet come out, Gear VR can only support Note4, and what the storm does now looks a little early. In Fengxin's view, two times, this is still a choice.

Oculus VR and Gear VR, although behind the shadow of Oculus and Facebook, this represents two different directions: PC-side VR or mobile-side VR. VR enthusiasts often choose the former, but the storm chooses the latter. Mobile VR breaks the limits of the line and the host, and is more flexible. Three years later, the development of PC is hard to predict, but the performance of mobile phones will certainly improve.

Then there is the problem, and the mobile-side VR has Gear VR and cardboard. The former emphasis on immersion effect on mobile phones and display equipment are required, the latter emphasis on consumer prices, suitable for popularization, often only to achieve 3D effect. In the eye of the storm, 1 million users are required for VR to explode, which is the basis for developers to make money, and to operate the biosphere. Choose this road, magic mirror can roll out sales, people can really contact, use VR, but also means that the immersion effect greatly reduced. What VR is, and where the passing line of VR effects is, has also become the difference between some VR enthusiasts and the Storm mirror. At the Mobile VR developer Salon, which was held prior to 36 Krypton, Fengxin said that 1999 yuan of mobile phones can run, is one of the standards of passing, must be Note4 these high-end mobile phones to play, will restrict its popularity. Gear VR content is done through Unity 3D, the effect is good, but too "burning" mobile phone, even if 1999 yuan of mobile phones to open such content will be particularly hot, so the storm is best to choose to do on Android, "abandon the enthusiasts."

The advent of the consumer-level storm mirror has also contributed to the commercialization of the entire industry to some extent. Fengxin said that after the Mirror was released, at least five or six companies released new products or started shipping, and they didn't want to set the price so low, which is a good thing for the market. Developers are more likely to make money when there are 1 million users, and developers are not worried about making money when there are 10 million of them.

At present, the storm is actively promoting the online advertising products, in Fengxin view, this may be a commercial inflection point. PC end and mobile end of the advertising interface is small, but also keep active pop-up to attract users attention. But in the VR content, the user is not seeing a frame of the picture, but the whole scene, it is possible to implant ads, neither the initiative to interrupt the user, but also to achieve a 360-degree panorama. The willingness of advertisers to pay is only a matter of time.

At the same time, movies, games, live online, have the potential to charge. The Storm mirror of the second generation of the press conference, using a panoramic live, and did a fee trial, but the cost of the 50 magic beans are provided to the audience by the storm, the audience temporarily has not intuitive pay feelings. In addition, the Chinese user's awareness of copyright, pay awareness of the promotion of quality content charges are also possible. The game also has the potential to pay in the game, this model in the end of the tour, the page tour, the hands of the times have gone through.

Warring States Potence

Compared with startups, storms do VR and have a wealth of wealth.

As a new medium, VR has market and imagination space, and as a kind of technology, there is a business model that can go through. Other video sites also take advantage of opportunities that are richer and more resource-rich than storms. When the mobile phone in the configuration, function has been difficult to improve the quality of the mobile phone peripherals and peripherals may be a breakthrough, perhaps in the future every handset manufacturers will launch their own cardboard, low-cost or even free to provide mobile phone users.

The storm that had just found a new opportunity seemed to be uncertain. Fengxin tease me that this is a storm to worry about, reporters should like to rush. It was these giants and manufacturers who joined the VR thing. Bat3m These companies they have money, talent, Internet thinking, the ability to operate the ecological chain, will be more influential than the storm, have advantages. So the storm thought of cooperation, hoping to open up content and user groups, and to woo developers. "When manufacturers develop their own mobile VR costs more than they do with the storm, they work with the storm," he said. However, some insiders pointed out that the content is developer, users have no loyalty, the storm to do this level of openness will be difficult.

However, this also depends on the mentality of the storm.

"We just saw this opportunity earlier than anyone else," he said. This will not affect our VR, but will only affect our future ranking in the VR field. ”

In a decade, virtual reality devices represented by Oculus VR and Gear VR are likely to be the next generation computing platforms. In the early stage of virtual reality development, the first-onset advantage of the storm is still to be verified by the market. But sit, it's better to do it. For today's storms, there is more chance of survival ...