The VR Industry Is Expected to Move into the Fast Lane

By Leo Zhang

In 2022， the development of the virtual reality industry attracted much attention. The State has introduced a series of policies to guide and support the integration and application of virtual reality and traditional industries to promote industrial development.

More than 15 provinces， municipalities and regions in China have issued policies related to the metaverse and virtual reality， aiming to guide healthy and orderly development of the virtual reality and metaverse industries. With the gradual implementation of the policy， the integration of virtual reality and industry application is deepening， and the virtual reality industry is expected to step into the fast lane.

On November 1st， 2022， the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology， the Ministry of Education， the Ministry of Culture and Tourism， the National Radio and Television Administration and the General Administration of Sport jointly issued the Action Plan for the Integrated Development of Virtual Reality and Industrial Applications （2022-2026）（referred to as the Action Plan）. According to the Plan， the total scale of Chinas virtual reality industry is set to exceed RMB 350 billion by 2026.

The metaverse stimulates the development of the industry

In the five key tasks of the Action Plan， it is proposed to accelerate the application of virtual reality in multiple industries and scenarios， and to deepen the organic integration of virtual reality and industries in such fields such as industrial production， cultural tourism， integrated media， education and training， sports and health， business creativity， performing arts and entertainment， safety emergency response， disability assistance and smart city. At the same time， the Action Plan puts forward that priority will be given to large-scale and mature industries， including VR/AR industrial empowerment， VR/AR immersive travel experience， VR/AR public fitness， VR/ AR online broadcasting and VR/AR smart business circle.

Chen Jingshu， Co-founder of VeeR， said in an interview that the publication of the Action plan sent a positive signal for the virtual reality industry. This is mainly reflected in two aspects. On the one hand， related industries and enterprises will pay more attention to and be willing to try using VR related technologies； on the other hand， local governments will pay more attention to the development of the VR industry and launch targeted support policies to stimulate the development vitality of the VR industry.

Industry experts predict that industrial policies will play a significant role in the development of the virtual reality industry in 2023. Local metaverse policies and related plans have gradually entered the stage of implementation. At the just-concluded two sessions the government work reports of Shanghai， Sichuan， Henan and Shandong provinces all proposed that in 2023 they will vigorously develop the metaverse， the industrial metaverse， virtual reality， metaverse science and innovation industrial parks and other related industries. On the enterprise side， hardware manufacturers such as Oculus， HTC and PICO support and invest in content developers at their own expense to improve the content richness of VR to cultivate the user education market， so as to realize the positive cycle of hardware， content and users in the VR industry.

VR industries speed up the trend of localization

Soochow Securities believes that multiple factors at different stages will promote the rapid growth trend of VR equipment in the short and medium term. Meanwhile， the gradual improvement of industrial ecology will promote the significant performance elasticity of VR hardware industry chain， and the core links such as complete machine integration， optics and display as well as branding is expected to take the lead in gaining benefit.

Zhang Chunyan， Vice President of market ecology of HiAR， said during an interview that in 2022 AR has a more obvious trend of development strategy window period in the industrial field， showing the characteristics of common application of typical scenes， diversified innovation related scenes and standardization of products and services. Looking ahead to 2023， the maturity of AR technology and products， such as the algorithm， computing power and optics， still need to focus on optimization， but the release of policies such as virtual reality and metaverse， as well as the urgency of transformation and upgrading of industrial enterprises， will also bring great opportunities to the development of AR.

“Virtual reality + sports” has become a new way for many people to do physical exercise. Cai Xia， research and development producer of China Electronics Cloud MetaSports BU， said that in the background of digital economy era， the digitalization of sports industry has become the general trend. VR， AR， cloud computing and digital twin technologies have brought more possibilities for the digital transformation of sports industry. In 2023， the Company will also expand to treadmill， rowing machine and other intelligent sports equipment on the basis of the original spinning cycle， to enrich the product selection of the sports metaverse.

In 2022， VR/AR/MR Hardware became an incremental category of new consumer electronics products. According to incomplete statistics， more than 40 VR and AR products will be released or announced in 2022. There are not only traditional consumer electronics leaders such as Lenovo， TCL， Huawei， OPPO and Xiaomi， but also innovative companies such as Ffalcon Innovation， Nreal， Pimax Technology and Dream Bloom.

Hu Xianlong， Vice President of Nreal， said in an interview with media that in 2022 Nreal produced the 100，000th Nreal Air AR glasses， showing the strong growth of consumer AR hardware market demand. Hu said：“we are experiencing acceleration of the trend of physical screen to digital screen iteration， more and more consumers have become more receptive to digital screens， and digital screen gradually replacing part of the physical screen has become an irreversible trend. We will continue to improve the user experience in 2023.”

To strengthen the research and development for the pain points of the industry

Looking into the future， industry experts point out that virtual reality will play an empowering role in industrial production， cultural tourism， integrated media， education and training， sports and health， business creativity， smart city and other industrial application fields， and stimulate the vitality of vertical application economy. However， some experts also said that virtual reality still needs to cross some thresholds in the enabling industry development to achieve large-scale application process in the future.

According to Skyworth VRs head of domestic marketing， Bu Defa， PANCAKEs plan became the mainstream of the industry in 2022， with a significant reduction in product weight， further improvements in comfort， and the basic resolution of pain points such as vertigo， and favorable product experience driving VR hardware sales. Looking ahead to 2023， he believes that the overall VR market will explode with improved product experience， more application scenarios and more affordable prices， and further growth of hardware sales is the inevitable result. The entry of more manufacturers， including Apple and Sony， will further explode the market and more users will like VR and recommend VR.

Ding Zhigang， General Manager of Baidu Virtual Reality， said that on the one hand， it is expected that relevant departments will increase the support in the virtual reality industrial policy and the construction of industrial infrastructure platform， promote the development and breakthrough of the key core technologies of virtual reality， so that large， small and medium-sized enterprises in different industries and C-end users may participate in the construction of the whole track， and accelerate the large-scale application of the industry. On the other hand， leading technology enterprises should adhere to the attitude of opening sources， driving the production end， consumption end， technology linkage， talent training and other links to form a positive cycle of mutual promotion， form industrial ecological synergy， and jointly promote the processes of Chinas virtual reality industry.

Hui Xinchen， Founder & CEO of Rushi， said that there is still a long way to go to explore the application of virtual reality technology to work towards the industrial end. To realize the penetration and application of virtual reality technology in a wider range of industrial end and form a new pattern of large-scale technology transformation and development， not only needs the support of policies， but also needs more and more technical talent accumulation， and more focused on the research and development investment for the pain points of the industry.

Guosen Securities predicts that the global VR/AR market is expected to regain growth in 2023. The evolution of the VR/AR industry has the progress of hardware and the improvement of underlying technology， while the prosperity of content ecology will promote the substantial progress of the industry.

As for the changes in the layout of the metaverse business of technology manufacturers， experts believe that the development of the virtual reality/ metaverse industry will be affected by the macro environment in the short term， but that its long-term growth is still the development trend.