Alvin Wang, HTC’s China Regional President of VR, expressed at the Virtual Reality Summit of the Global Innovator Conference (GIC) in Beijing last Saturday that investment bank Goldman Sachs underestimated the potential of VR in their January report. Wang said VR will surpass mobile phones in terms of market size within four years.
Wang discussed the potential of the VR market in a keynote speech at the summit, predicting that in 2025, VR could possibly have a market size of USD 110 billion.
“It took PCs 28 years to peak but smartphones only took nine years. Now the market for smartphones has begun to shrink,” Wang said. “So I think, within four years, the population of VR users will surpass smartphone users. And in 2019, the sales performance of VR will outshine that of smartphones.”
Wang also quoted Goldman Sachs’s earlier report on virtual reality and augmented reality, saying he thought “their calculation was a bit inaccurate”. In the report addressed, Goldman Sachs proposed that, in 2025, the total annual revenue of VR and AR will hit USD 80 billion according to their standard projections, in which 75% of software revenue will be driven by VR.
Wang’s higher estimation of the potential market size of VR may come from his observation of a now overwhelmingly popular VR market in China. Compared to many other markets, China is apparently showing a higher interest in VR. AllChinaTech talked to a few foreign attendees of the GIC VR summit and received similar feedback.
“Though Silicon Valley is more advanced in VR in terms of cutting-edgy technology, China is definitely more advanced in many other aspects,” Matthieu Labeau, business development manager of Nozon, a VR software developer based in Brussels, told AllChinaTech. The company is seeking partners in China and sees “great interest” from many prospective partners.
Founder and CTO of American VR startup JauntVR, Arthur Van Hoff also revealed to AllChinaTech that the company has plans for a product release in China later in 2016. JauntVR closed a USD 65 million round of financing from investors including Disney, and Chinese investor Evolution Media Capital, last September. It also has plans to establish a branch in China this summer. The booming VR market here in China is attracting more external competitors.
Baofeng VR, one of China’s most famous VR manufacturers, published a Chinese VR Consumer Behaviour Report together with China’s National Institute of Advertising in March. The report indicates that China has a potential VR consumer pool of 286 million users.
Chinese content providers are also looking into this evolutionary content format. Renowned Chinese media outlet Caixin recently released its first VR documentary. LentinVR, once focused on developing promotional VR travel videos, released their first VR movie last year and is working on a VR reality show right now. AllChinaTech also found staff from famous Chinese dating websites look for VR solutions to improve their service at the GIC VR summit.
Will the passion from the Chinese market accelerate the development of VR in China? It’ll be an interesting question to keep an eye on for the remainder of 2016.
AllChinaTech is closely following VR trends with our VR report series. Check out our earlier articles on VR below:
- 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
