The Chinese market size of the new “5G+VR” consumption model is expected to reach 90 billion yuan

Wear VR (virtual reality) equipment to travel around the country, log in to VR stores to buy the latest products... With the successful cooperation between 5G and VR in many fields, the virtual reality industry has ushered in new development opportunities in accelerating popularization and commercialization. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently issued the "Notice on Promoting the Accelerated Development of 5G", requiring further promotion of 5G+VR/AR (augmented reality) and other applications to promote new information consumption. According to the forecast of Greenlight Insights, an AR/VR industry market analysis agency, the global VR industry will reach 160 billion yuan in 2020, and the Chinese market will reach 90 billion yuan.

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Cool experience of "Technology Partner"

The graceful "Oriental Goddess", the lifelike "Giant Python Coming Out of the Mountain"... Recently, the Sanqingshan Scenic Area in Shangrao, Jiangxi Province, used a 24-hour 5G+VR live broadcast to show the beautiful scenery of the "No. 1 Fairy Peak in the World" to online tourists from all over the country. Visitors can experience the "immersive" viewing without leaving home by simply turning on their mobile phones or computers.

As the epidemic prevention and control situation continues to improve, major online travel platforms and scenic spots across the country have launched "cloud visits" and "cloud tourism" activities with the help of 5G+VR technology to meet people's strong demand for travel without queuing or crowding. 5G+VR, this "technological partner", has taken root in various application scenarios, bringing people a cool new life experience.

In Chengdu, Sichuan, the first local 5G+VR cloud store, Huawei Joy City Cloud VR Store, was recently launched. In the VR store, the panoramic layout and product display are perfectly restored. Users can drag the screen to go to the "online counter" of interest to learn more about the product. With the help of 5G network, the picture is high-definition and the shopping experience is stable and smooth.

During the epidemic prevention period, many retailers have set their sights on the construction of a 5G+VR panoramic virtual shopping guide platform. While expanding online consumption, they have helped offline physical stores to acquire customers in multiple ways through the "online counter" drainage model, thereby promoting store sales growth and realizing a new consumption model that integrates online and offline.

"There is still a lot of room for the development of customer traffic in VR stores in the future. At this stage, 5G+VR is cultivating a new model of customer consumption." The person in charge of the VR cloud store said that with the full coverage of 5G networks, more commercial complexes, brands and retailers will join the new consumption scenarios that integrate online and offline in the future, and the new 5G+VR consumption model will be accepted and recognized by more consumers.

“5G and VR are like twin brothers”

Since the advent of VR technology, related products have been widely used in many fields. However, due to problems such as immature technology and insufficient infrastructure support, the development of the VR industry has been ups and downs.

In the past, when VR devices were actually used, users often felt dizzy due to delayed images and asynchrony between sound and image. According to industry insiders, in order to ensure the efficiency of data transmission, VR devices are relatively large in size and weight, making them difficult to wear for a long time. The "unremovable" data cable also limits the portability of the device.

"The integration of 5G technology can now make up for the shortcomings of VR technology and effectively solve the problem of poor device experience." Wu Dijie, deputy general manager of Hengxin Oriental, said that 5G has the characteristics of high speed, low latency, and large-capacity transmission. Therefore, 5G+VR data transmission is faster and smoother, and content storage and presentation no longer consume a lot of space and time. It has broken through the original technical bottleneck of VR, and the experience it brings is naturally more comfortable.

In terms of the structure and cost of VR equipment, 5G technology can transfer some data and computing tasks to the cloud through ultra-high-capacity cloud storage and high-speed, stable data transmission, making VR terminals more compact, lightweight and wireless. The hardware production cost will also drop by about 70%, and the actual use and maintenance costs will also be reduced accordingly.

"5G and VR are like twin brothers that grow up together." Industry insiders said that with the further in-depth integration of 5G and VR, VR devices may also be cloud-based, which will further promote the large-scale popularization and commercial use of VR terminals.

Talent gap needs to be filled

With the development of the 5G+VR industry, problems such as the insufficient supply of high-quality, multi-faceted engineering and technical talents have become major bottlenecks that need to be broken through urgently.

The current VR products and content are relatively single, which is also the result of the shortage of high-quality compound talents to a certain extent. Li Xiaoying, R&D director of 51WORLD Digital City Division, said that R&D personnel should not only understand virtual reality technology, but also have relevant experience in 5G communication and data processing, and carry out corresponding product development according to specific application scenarios.

In order to cultivate a fertile soil for the development of VR talents, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the National Bureau of Statistics officially listed "virtual reality engineering and technical personnel" as one of the 16 new occupations at the beginning of this year. The Ministry of Education has also previously included the "Virtual Reality Technology Undergraduate Major" in the "Catalogue of Undergraduate Majors of Ordinary Higher Education Institutions (2020 Edition)" to provide a basis and reference for setting up vocational education majors and training programs and determining teaching and training content, thereby achieving talent training and market connection and meeting the development needs of the 5G+VR industry.

In addition, local universities and leading VR companies have also fully played a guiding role, and promoted the continuous output of high-quality compound talents to the market by strengthening cooperative education and targeted training. In June last year, the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Education issued an action plan to accelerate the development of the virtual reality industry, proposing to build a talent training system in the VR field of universities across the province and create a "Jiangxi highland" for VR talents. Experts pointed out that the VR industry has been continuously supported in terms of policies and technologies. If it can "climb over the hurdles" and break through the talent bottleneck, the entire industry will usher in a broader development space.