Metaverse meets the World Cup with fire VR glasses

　　Industry experts believe that in the future, VR products will truly enter the mass market, and multiple support from hardware manufacturers, content developers, and media will be needed

　　Our reporter Xiang Yantao

　　Trainee reporter He Wangjuan

　　At midnight on November 21, Beijing time, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar officially started.

Fan Xiaosu told the "Securities Daily" reporter that in order to watch the World Cup immersively, he ordered VR glasses from PICO's official website for 2,999 yuan, and received the goods the next day after placing the order.

　　It is understood that, unlike the past, this World Cup is the first large-scale sports event that can be watched using VR equipment.

As a new media platform that owns one of the rights to broadcast the World Cup, ByteDance launched the "Go to PICO to watch the World Cup ball is approaching" activity through the VR equipment manufacturer PICO acquired last year, adding metaverse elements to watching the World Cup.

　　The popularity of the World Cup has also boosted the sales of VR glasses. A reporter from Securities Daily learned from JD.com that according to JD.com’s sales, the turnover of VR glasses in the past week has increased by more than 50% year-on-year.

　　"The World Cup can promote consumers to purchase VR headsets to a certain extent." Zhao Siquan, a senior analyst at IDC China, said in an interview with the "Securities Daily" reporter. Smartphones are comparable, and their consumer market has not really opened up, and there is still a certain distance for the VR industry to truly enter the mass market.

　　It is worth mentioning that the two new media platforms that have won the rights to broadcast the World Cup - China Mobile's Migu and ByteDance's Douyin, both chose to inject metaverse elements.

Migu launched the "Metaverse World Cup Music Festival", and Douyin used PICO to launch a VR viewing event.

　　As the largest equipment manufacturer for VR viewing, PICO's close-range immersive viewing mode has attracted much attention from the market.

Kaiyuan Securities believes that watching the World Cup at home may become the first choice for most fans in China. Pico VR has a large potential demand for watching the World Cup, which may drive the sales of Pico 4 and fully popularize the metaverse experience.

　　Zhao Siquan told reporters that this World Cup is the first large-scale sports event that uses VR equipment to watch the game, and it is also Pico's key construction of live broadcast scenes other than game scenes, which is an important step in its content ecological construction. Building momentum can expand the VR target group.

　　"Large-scale sports events, entertainment performances and other highly ornamental activities are a very good application scenario for VR products." iiMedia Consulting CEO Zhang Yi told the "Securities Daily" reporter that Douyin and other platforms have provided VR services this time. Injecting metaverse elements into game watching, its demonstration effect is greater than the actual economic benefit.

　　Guolian Securities pointed out that VR live broadcasting is expected to use the influence of the World Cup to achieve initial breakthroughs, thereby promoting the penetration rate of VR all-in-one machines.

　　According to IDC data, my country's VR equipment shipments in 2021 will be 1.43 million units, and it is expected to further increase in the next few years.

In addition, the "Action Plan for the Integration and Development of Virtual Reality and Industry Applications (2022-2026)" pointed out that by 2026, the overall scale of my country's virtual reality industry is expected to exceed 350 billion yuan, and the sales volume of virtual reality terminals will exceed 25 million units.

　　The popularity of the World Cup has brought VR equipment to the market again. However, due to factors such as price, technology, and application scenarios, there is still a certain distance for the product to truly enter the mass market.

　　"Current VR scenarios are mainly concentrated in a few fields such as games." Angel investor and well-known Internet expert Guo Tao told the "Securities Daily" reporter that due to outstanding problems such as immature core technology, high equipment prices, and lack of mature application scenarios, making VR The user experience of VR products is not good, the product stickiness is not high, and it is impossible to achieve large-scale landing and popularization.

　　Zhao Siquan also told the "Securities Daily" reporter that relying on large-scale event performances can expand the target audience of VR products, but its ability to drive is limited.

At present, the application scenarios of VR products are still dominated by games.

The popularization of VR equipment is also related to many factors such as residents' consumption confidence, marketing methods, equipment parameters, and content richness.

In the future, VR products will truly enter the mass market, and multiple support from hardware manufacturers, content developers, and media will be needed.

(Securities Daily)