As written in our 2016 prediction series, China will likely see a year of fast development for virtual reality (VR) in the coming year. As for which companies you should pay closest attention to in the coming year? We’ve curated a list of the most noteworthy companies in the Chinese market as of right now.
Though none of these companies have established dominance yet, each has some comparative advantages of one kind or another. Whether you’re a VR enthusiast, or you only have some passing interest, the following companies should all be watched carefully in 2016!
ANTVR
ANTVR kicked off a successful product launch with an earlier Kickstarter campaign in 2014. With USD 260,834 from 681 backers, the startup’s all-in-one universal VR kit has attracted wide attention from the public, even outside of China. Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus once commented that ANTVR’s controller was pretty “cool”. The Chinese VR startup launched a Google Cardboard type VR headset and a VR camera at a later date.
ANTVR recently finalized RMB 300 million (USD 46 million) in Series B funding. With new investment pouring in, we may possibly see more exciting products from ANTVR in 2016.
ANTVR Headset
Specs: 100-degree view, 1080p screen, refresh rate N/A, claims to have “almost no delay”.
Price: RMB 1499 (USD 231)
Visit ANTVR
DeePoon
Founded in 2014, DeePoon has risen as a hotshot in the sector. Its latest product the DeePoon E2, an Oculus Rift-like headset, similarly requires a access to a personal computer. For RMB 2199 (USD 343), it offers a 120-degree diagonal field of view with a pretty good 19ms delay on a high-resolution Samsung AMOLED screen.
DeePoon recently raised USD 30 million in funding from two companies in the Xiaomi galaxy, both of which have vast resources in video content and online games. With the new resources and investment, we can expect a boost in DeePoon-compatible VR content.
DeePoon E2
Price: RMB 2199
Specs: 120-degree view, 19ms delay, 75 Hz refresh rates, Samsung AMOLED screen.
Visit DeePoon
3Glasses
3Glasses is a Shenzhen-based virtual reality manufacturer established in 2014. 3Glasses claims research and development for its VR products actually stems back as far as 2012 according to the company’s official website. The company adopted a business model of collaboration with offline 3D theaters and experience stores to promote its products, and now has already over 1,000 experience stores in China.
3Glasses will present its new product along with its current signature product the D2 at the upcoming CES on January 6th. It is claimed the new product weighs only 150g.
3Glasses D2 Vanguard edition
Price: RMB 2199
Specs: 110-degree view,＜13ms delay, 60 Hz refresh rate, 2K screen.
Visit 3Glasses
FiresVR
Different from the startups above, FiresVR is more of a software company than a manufacturer. The company only has a basic VR headset and focuses more on its own development kit the FiresVR Dawn SDK — currently at version of 0.9.
FiresVR claims to be the only company using Asynchronous Time Warp (ATW) algorithms besides Oculus, which reduces the time of delay for headsets to under 20ms. The VR startup has received investment from the Chinese mobile application developer APUS Group. The combination of the two may possibly lower the technical barriers to the uptake of VR in China.
JiDome-1 VR Glasses (Developer version)
Price: RMB 199 (USD)
Specs: 90-degree view, compatible with 5.7-inch screen smartphones.
FiresVR Dawn SDK: based on Unity 3D
Visit FiresVR
LeVR
LeVR is a subsidiary of Chinese smart device manufacturer and video streaming site LeTV. The smart device maker announced its entry into the VR sector in late December of 2015. Because of a high similarity in design, LeVR’s VR headsets are believed to be produced by its strategic partner the Chinese VR hardware maker LingVR.
LeTV notably has strong content development ability as well as high competence in streaming live performances. Its VR content development plan covers celebrity interviews, live performances and VR movies. The establishment of LeVR will likely add vast high-quality content to the market, especially in casual entertainment.
LeVR Cool 1
Price: RMB 149 (USD 24)
Specs: 90-degree view, 20ms delay, compatible with 5.5-inch screen smartphones (optimized for LeTV’s Le 1 & Le 1 Pro).
Visit LeVR’s Weibo.
And last but not least…
Tencent
Another strong player to keep tabs on is Tencent, the Chinese social network giant and mobile game monster. Tencent announced it will launch all three types of VR display headset including Cardboard-style VR glasses, all-in-one portable headsets, and Oculus Rift-like PC-connected headsets – likely to be compatible with its gaming console the miniStation – over the next two years.
Tencent has also released the development kit Tencent VR SDK which will first support Unity followed by Unreal and Android SDK in the future. Though few details have been released at present, once the industry giant gets into the game, it’ll very likely become a driving force in the sector with its power in research and development shining through with new VR technology and content.
AllChinaTech is closely following VR trends with our VR report series. Check out our earlier articles on VR below:
- Q&A with Artlord China: How Chinese VR market is different from its American counterpart
- What has Huawei been doing for VR?
- China’s leading media outlet Caixin explores VR journalism
- 7invensun VP: Eye-tracking will elevate your VR experience
- VR developer Noitom to make “breakthrough” in VR experience
- ANTVR CEO: The VR ecosystem in China will be ready in 2016
- VR model room provider expands business to 16 Chinese cities
- FiresVR CEO: Algorithm key to a leading spot in China’s VR space
- Alibaba launches its VR lab to take on Tencent
- LetinVR COO: Making VR entertainment mainstream is a challenge
- VR cloud platform Leke closes Series A+ financing round at USD 4 million
- DeePoon VR CEO: The next five years will be a golden age for VR
- The next killer VR app may come from China: First-hand experience with HTC Vive
- Ling VR CEO: all-in-one VR devices will dominate Chinese market
- 5 Chinese VR companies to watch in 2016
- Be ready for the virtual reality boom
Wow great article I can’t believe there are no other comments so far.. but I guess people only hear about Oculus rift, htc Vive, PS Vr and gear Vr… -_-‘ I’m really wishing and hoping for a lot of success for these companies 🙂
Hey Reda, thank you so much for your reply! Big names always attract more attentions but there’re indeed some smaller companies worth our attention too! You can also visit our site and search VR to check our latest VR series reports! Guess you’ll like this series if you’re into VR!
Interesting. The article mainly focuses on hardware, and as someone who is in the industry in China, I would have been curious to see something about the software side of the business.
Sure. There will be more interesting software companies distinguishing themselves from others later on in 2016. At the moment, most VR companies do both hardware and software may be because in an early stage market, focusing on software only still seems to be too risky to many. But we still got to talk to a few software VR companies in China. You can check this story here: VR model room provider expands business to 16 Chinese cities We’ll also contact and interview more software VR companies in China in the near future.