Dai Ruoli gave a speech at a technology forum and predicted that the VR industry will develop rapidly in the future. The next day, Oculus, VR's founder, was taken over by Facebook for nearly $2 billion. Dai is the CTO of the startup company Nuo Yiteng. The prophecy became so fast that Dai Ruoli never thought of himself.
He still remembers that day was March 26, 2014. The $2 billion acquisition valuation ignited the enthusiasm of investors. They began to pay attention to the VR industry from this moment. Before that, they did not even understand the specific meaning of VR. But a strong sense of capital tells them that this may be a new track. They began to use real money to invest in the industry with a market value of up to 100 billion in the future, trying to create the next 10 times or even 100 times more returns for LPs.
Entrepreneurs who saw the outlet also began to frantically rush in. Listed companies that didn't want to engage in disk arrays also began to compete for VR projects earlier. According to the statistics of the daily investment, in 2015, at least nearly 70 VR companies in China have received angel or A-round investment.
However, the carnival did not last long. Cold winter capital and VR helmet shipments were not as expected, allowing investors to slow down. Wei Xu, an investment manager of Hejun Capital, recalled, “At the end of 2015 and early 2016, when the secondary market VR concept was the hottest, the VR project valuation premium was more than twice as high as before, but now everyone began to ask I, how do you see this capital winter?"
The domestic VR helmet startup companies lack core technology and their shipments are not enough; VR games have a single income and technical issues are still to be solved; VR video is still exploring new storytelling methods... The entire industry chain is still in its early stages, but people are The stage has invested too much enthusiasm.
"In the VR field, we and the United States start at the same time, but if Chinese start-up companies are not able to continuously iterate technically, they may lose their first-mover advantage and eventually become a processing plant and a consumer market rather than a technology. The field of innovation has a pioneering market,†said Wei Xu.
Crazy
In early 2015, Dai Ruoli suddenly discovered that the number of investors who came to visit was increased and he would meet with investors almost every day. He probably estimated that, this year, he met more than 100 investment institutions, and Nuo Yiteng co-founder Liu Yiyang also met more than 100.
Nuoyi Teng was previously a company focusing on motion capture systems. The main areas of application of technology are film and television effects and golf. Since VR interaction was formally adopted as the company's third-largest main business since 2015, there have been a steady stream of investors.
"Basically you have heard about investment institutions we have talked about." Dai Ruoli pointed to the wall against the shelves, there are four thick 100-page mounted business card holder, "There are three in the four business card holders This is an investor. It is estimated that another new name card holder will be purchased next week because these four books are already full."
Dai Ruoli clearly feels that the VR outlet is really coming. When he talked about VR to a customer or investor, he doesn't need to explain the VR before introducing the company's business model as he did two years ago. What impact VR can bring, it is no longer necessary to send them a video presentation on VR science knowledge before meeting investors. This made him feel that the resistance to running forward was even smaller. "At least every meeting is very efficient."
Investors are no strangers to this kind of running. In just one year, Hejun Capital's VR team has seen more than 1,000 projects and eventually invested 12 projects. It is the largest investment institution in China that currently invests in VR projects. He Jun established a dedicated VR team to invest in seed and angel stage VR projects. At the same time, Hejun also joined the tens of billions of dollars of VR venture capital alliance led by HTC.
In accordance with B2B2C's investment logic, Hejun started with offline experience stores that are most easily cashed in, and invested in Lectra VR and VR offline game developer Vision Vision Network to lay out real estate in the To B industry that is very close to cash flow. VR conductor and so on. Hejun Capital’s VR Investment Group is preparing to publish a book called “Virtual Reality+†in September.
Investing in VR is not an easy task. Wei Xu witnessed the VR crazy investment in 2015.
"A newly established VR game company has a normal valuation of 200-300 million yuan, but the valuation of the secondary VR market is doubling from late 2015 to early 2016," Wei Xu recalled.
Listed companies that previously served as disk accesses in the investment chain have more actively involved in the VR industry in the early stages. In the second half of 2015, listed companies announced the establishment of VR investment funds almost every day. The industry researchers of each brokerage firm wrote VR industry analysis reports day and night, and VR-related concept stocks also ushered in a number of daily limit-ups at that time.
Crazy is not just capital. Fengsong Capital’s early project leader Zhu Yuzhou once met an entrepreneur and he confidently told Zhu Xizhou that there are so many listed companies in the A-share market who want to invest in VR investments. A (startup company), now the top three VR startups in the industry have been closed, the fourth is us.
In the industry there is a paragraph describing the VR entrepreneurial chaos at the time. What product does VR sell? Answer: PPT. Is it VR, AR, or MR? Answer: PR.
A VR industry practitioner mentioned that a well-known VR helmet manufacturer in China opened two press conferences last year and this year, but it has not been mass-produced and the product is not visible on the market. Take a prototype and cash out."
When he came to the United States to inspect the VR startup company last year, he met a strong contrast. When the majority of American entrepreneurs are still doing VR's underlying algorithms, input and output solutions, Chinese entrepreneurs mostly invest in industry applications, platforms, and industries that are closer to profitability.
“It's like a group of people are playing on the foundation and another group is building a house. The problem now is that when the local base is not strong enough, the building is higher and higher.†He Wenyi said.
"Bumping"
Tang Bin has stopped operating the Super-Dimensional Planetary Incubator business for half a year and began to develop integrated solutions to help VR companies solve the core technical problems such as dizziness, 3D effect experience and so on.
The Super-dimensional Planetary Incubator is the world's first open ecosystem in the field of 3D Internet jointly developed by China's 3D Industry Alliance and the 3D World Think Tank. Tang Bin is the Chairman of Super-Dimensional Planet. In 2015, Ultra-dimensional planet officially launched the VR Lab program. In the course of half a year, it has hatched nearly 10 projects. However, in Tang Bin’s view, entrepreneurial companies cannot solve the systemic industrial chain matching problems. "Because the VR industry is too early, and no one has stipulated the standardized things, it will appear this kind of chaos. Before doing 3D, all industry-related and irrelevant have entered the VR field, everyone said Own core technology, but this is not the case."
“Furthermore, many VR helmets that start-up companies do is nothing more than a monitor.†Tang Bin said bluntly.
In September 2014, Oculus announced the open source technology of the first generation product DK1. In China, through the reverse cracking of DK1 and a slight modification of programming, a wave of VR helmet startups of different brands was born.
In early 2015, a large number of VR helmets in Shenzhen began to rise and began financing and shipping. However, when Oculus's iterations of DK2 and CV1 were no longer open source, VR helmet companies that had previously been open-sourced faced the problem that they had no core VR technology and could not continue to iterate.
According to industry insiders, some companies that had previously developed a PC-based VR helmet slowly transitioned to a Cardboard-style mobile VR with a lower technology threshold.
In terms of standard setting, the three most critical technologies in VR helmets, such as optics, algorithms, and display screens, require large-scale industry leaders (such as Samsung, HTC, and IBM) to determine the standards. Generally, small businesses do not have any The right to speak.
“We directly masked the VR helmet project,†said Wan Haoji, a partner at Jingwei, China. “Like the mobile Internet era, Xiaomi’s mobile phone will not be available today because all major hardware companies do it. VR, it's hard for a small startup to survive."
The latitude and longitude of the United States is a round A investor of Oculus. After Facebook's acquisition of Oculus, it exited and received a huge return. It was therefore labeled as “the most profitable investor in VR todayâ€. However, at home, Jingwei China did not vote for a VR helmet project.
After January 2016, Oculus, HTC, and Sony released their own VR consumer products. This is a sign that the VR industry chain is getting mature. However, for start-up companies that specialize in VR helmets, this may be a frustrating bad. news. Zhu Xizhou noticed that the launch of VR helmets this year was much less than last year.
Previously VR helmet companies have quietly transitioned. Le worms, perfect illusions began to do 360-degree video shooting, depth VR started with interactive devices.
In the last three months, Nuoyi Teng Company has successively come to a number of candidates, many of whom come from startup companies of VR helmets, and some are even directors or heads of R&D departments.
“The speed of these companies has slowed down, or the employees themselves feel that the company seems to be a bit wrong, and they chose to change places.†Dai Ruoli felt that the VR helmet market was reshuffled.
Will VR helmet company usher in the B round of death in the second half of this year? “Not yet, everyone is still breathing.†Wei Xu said, “The majority of start-up companies take the money at the beginning of last year this year, so they can at least support this year. But from the second half of this year to next year, if the economic situation is not getting better and it is still in the cold winter of capital, there will certainly be many startup companies that fail to get their money and close down."
"Caution"
In the United States where Jingwei had just invested in Oculus, Wan Haoji had discussed the investment in the VR industry with partners in the United States. His colleagues suggested that the VR industry has not yet fully risen. This market is still too small.
Wan Haoji used “very careful†to describe his current attitude of investing in the VR industry. “VR is a big issue, but be careful when looking at the input-output ratio.†He does not want to disclose too much about the current Jingwei China The number of investments in this field, "We have seen a lot in VR, and we may invest more in game content and service scenarios. We are less involved in hardware."
Although many people regard VR as a new platform-level opportunity after the mobile Internet, in Wan Haoji's view, this somewhat exaggerates the influence of VR on the industry. “VR just changed some industries. â€
For example, VR can change the game and travel industry, making the experience more immersive, but it also only meets part of the user's needs. A VR game cannot be said to be the entire game, and VR video is not all of the video. Judging from the valuation, VR games and VR videos have their own valuation ceilings.
"From the current stage of VR, it will take some time to brewing. From technology to content, there is still plenty of room for improvement in all aspects. Everyone is still trying to figure out where VR will eventually go. It may also encounter ceilings such as being bigger and stronger, as well as valuations. Now many people may not recognize this fact yet.†Wan Haoji said.
Feng Rui Capital, a VC institution that was just established last year, still holds a wait-and-see attitude towards VR content investment. At this stage, it prefers to lay out its engine and tools. In July, Peak Capital had just led the United States game engine development platform unity $ 180 million of the C round of financing. According to Zhu Xizhou’s judgment, if game engine companies cannot get up, VR games based on it will be even more difficult to develop.
Why VR games difficult to start, touch technology CEO Chen Yuzhi revealed the reasons, "large-scale users, higher income is to attract game developers the biggest factor, but at present these two VR market can not support." Follow the majority PC-based games and mobile game manufacturers, touch technology is also waiting for an important point in the outbreak of VR helmet shipments. However, Chen Zhizhi predicts that shipments of VR helmets will not exceed one million units this year.
At present, touch technology is still in technical reserve in the field of VR games. Although some game demos have been developed, such as "I am the God of Car VR," there is currently no large investment in VR. Moreover, the profitability of domestic VR games is not that sexy. At present, there are still no products with a monthly income of over 10 million.
Wan Haoji used the mobile Internet as a reference to predict the pace of development of the VR industry. The iPhone was released in 2007, and the App Store came out in 2008. But the emergence of large-scale startup companies like Drip, Momo, etc., was five years after the iPhone was born. "If 2016 is the first year of VR helmets, even if the current cycle is shorter than before, it will take three years before the real first big company will emerge," Wan Haoji said.