On Wednesday, EnvelopVR posted a shocking and sad news on its website: "The company has closed down. Please email to the official email address for more information."
Envelop is one of the earliest VR startups. Founded in 2014, the main goal is to bring the traditional Windows desktop operating experience to VR. The company attracted the attention of a series of venture capital companies that wrapped Madrona and GV. Envelop allows users to create a immersive 3D computer operating environment, effectively reducing the dullness of the traditional screen.
Envelop is not the only VR company that has recently closed down. Vrideo, who had intended to become the VR version of YouTube, officially suspended its services in November last year, although the company has received funding from eleven VC and incubator investors in the seed round.
The good news is that these companies have not completely disappeared for those who are worried. In fact, there is not much to be missed beyond their original potential. This is the only good news, because in the next few years we must learn to get used to hearing this type of news.
I have always been optimistic about VR, otherwise I will not write so much about VR. However, reality tells us that it is only the early and unstable period of this new digital media, and VR is very likely to eventually outstrip the smartphone in influence.
The founders of many start-up companies jumped into this area, but the industry has not actually prepared for the arrival of large-scale consumers. Even if you have developed a product that solves many of the existing pain points in VR, it is very likely that what you are doing today will be obsolete tomorrow and you will never see results.
The fast-paced development of VR is a boon to those of us who want to see VR as a mainstream, but it is a curse to many entrepreneurs.
When some VR startups are about to fail due to the issues mentioned above, Envelop has a different cause of death: unable to enter the market.
It's hard to say that Envelop has been derailed in the development process, but there is no doubt that if the company does not choose to close down, it will still be on the wrong path. It is said that the company has encountered many difficulties in finding corporate customers and has been trying hard to clarify the specific application environment of the products. In addition, a large number of competitors have emerged in the existing computer field, such as Microsoft, Intel and Nvidia, which all want to share a share in the VR field.
This does not mean that the days of big companies are better than just saying that they have enough forage compared to smaller competitors. In fact, the current war is a protracted war. As long as the hardware cannot keep up with the needs of the B-side and C-side markets, consumption will continue. Although technology has evolved leaps and bounds since Oculus introduced the DK1, the resolution and comfort are still important obstacles for users to use VR for a long time.
This is bad news for investors, especially those early investors who had invested in VR startups around 2012, and they have already entered the market before consumers come into contact with VR. These start-up companies are the first companies to start declining.
What about China?
From the perspective of the end of last year to the beginning of this year, VR startups have also found it hard to escape the invasion of closures. Among them, the hardware manufacturers are even worse, and people in the industry have even given that "90% of the hardware manufacturers that make VR helmets no longer exist. "This statement.
Indeed, the weakness of the VR market in the second half of 2016 is in stark contrast to the previous fiery. One of the biggest news is that Storm Mirror has made large-scale layoffs in October. It is said that the proportion is as high as 50%; followed by a series of industry scandals, including the non-payment of wages by Domi Entertainment, the arrears of wages and reimbursement from the public viewing sector, etc. . The news may be accidental, but so many bad news happening in chains, one cannot deny that VR is indeed in trouble in China.
2016 storm mirror layoffs
From the aspect of investment, most of the investment with large domestic capital also occurred in the first half of the year. For instance, the Storm Mirror raised RMB 260 million in January, and the same day the League cloud removed RM 460 million to acquire 3 VR companies. Compared to professional investment institutions, the domestic is more of a large-scale company led by BAT in the VR industry to carry out a full range of layout, such as Alibaba 5.2 billion investment in Magic Leap, Tencent investment "VR travel" company Zhannadu, Baidu set up VR Channels, etc.
In other words, investors need more firm steps at this time and cannot give up.
At this stage, the risk of investing in VR ecology is particularly high, but the possible return will be excellent. Although there are still relatively few consumers who are actually exposed to VR, some very early companies have already earned millions of dollars in revenue. Once VR's “explosion models†appear and the gates are released, billions of dollars of consumers and companies’ funds will quickly flow into this market.
In addition, entrepreneurs in the VR field also implicitly agree with this view: Compared to other fields, fighting alone in VR is like suicide. Entrepreneurs insist on the fact that investors are interested in the success of VR, and because of the potentially huge revenue, they will now provide support for VR entrepreneurs. At present, VR has indeed reached the eyes of consumers, and we are already in the early adopters' ranks; now is the most suitable time for investment.
Madrona Venture Group, which invested in Envelop, made such remarks after the collapse of Envelop:
“We still believe that VR and AR will be unlimited in terms of future user experience, entertainment and corporate innovation. We hold a series of AR/VR-related investments and will pay long-term attention to these areas.â€
This is the correct attitude that investors should have when dealing with VR startups in the face of upcoming difficult times. If investors cannot fully support these early pioneers, then the entire industry is likely to fail. All of us will point out innovative technologies that could have emerged that could change the world.
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