Both VR and AR are very popular keywords in the capital market, and related investment and financing have entered an accelerated state. According to statistics, since 2022, there have been more than 30 domestic investment and financing events related to VR/AR and Hyperuniverse, and the largest single financing amount disclosed is 700 million yuan.
The first thing to do here is a popular science. What's the difference between VR and AR?
VR refers to virtual reality technology, that is, devices bring people to a completely virtual world, and the scenes and characters they see are fake. For example, in the movie "Ready Player One", the protagonist wears a VR device in the slum and can immediately come to the bizarre virtual world.
AR refers to augmented reality technology, which adds virtual information to the real world and brings immersion by combining reality with reality. For example, the popular Pokemon Go game a few years ago used ar technology to allow players to interact with real-world pet elves. Simply put, VR= complete virtual, AR= reality+virtual.
Whether it is the Internet, smart phones or new energy vehicles, the development of new technologies that change the world basically follows this technology maturity curve. Generally speaking, new technologies go through the following five stages from naivety to maturity:
In fact, VR and AR are not new technologies, and the initial germination and conception appeared in the last century. With people stepping into the era of mobile internet in 20 10, Google released the first wearable glasses in 20 12, and the concept of VR began to be pushed to the peak. At that time, Samsung, Microsoft, HTC and many other manufacturers also entered the market, and the industry also entered the expected expansion period.
However, after 20 16, the concepts of VR and AR gradually disappeared, mainly because there were still many flaws in the experience of the equipment at that time, and there was a lack of relevant ecological and content support. Since then, the industry has begun to enter the trough of the bubble burst.
After 20 19, Facebook's Oculus headset has achieved great success, accounting for more than 80% of the market share (blue column below), and has promoted the development of related ecology and applications. If the shipment exceeds10 million as a milestone, the VR industry has entered the fast lane since 202 1.
Therefore, I think that the low period of the current bubble burst in VR and AR industries has passed, and it is currently in the early stage of steady recovery.
In this process, VR and AR have also expanded many application scenarios, which can be divided into two directions: B-side and C-side. The B-end mainly uses AR, which can be used in medical, security and military fields. For example, doctors can use AR to assist surgery, inspectors can use AR to complete tasks better, and even some countries have begun to purchase Microsoft AR glasses for auxiliary training. C-side applications will be more grounded, such as games, social networking, live broadcast and so on.
However, I think the core application of VR is still in games, and other functions can only be regarded as icing on the cake. Compared with console games and mobile games, VR games can bring players a unique immersive experience. According to the agency's forecast, the global shipment of VR/AR equipment is expected to reach 28 million units in 2025, with a five-year compound growth rate of 4 1%.
Therefore, although VR and AR tracks are still relatively early, they will grow rapidly in the future and deserve our attention. Within a few years, the new round of innovation power triggered by VR and AR is very strong, probably no less than the new energy vehicles and smart phones in the past, and a number of outstanding new economic companies are constantly born. So what are the subdivided tracks in VR and AR fields, and what are the corresponding companies or funds?