Facebook launches 360 video function, and virtual reality technology is "aligned" with video?

According to the British "Financial Times" report, Facebook announced on Wednesday that it has added support for 360 video content to its information stream,

According to the Financial Times, Facebook announced on Wednesday that it had added support for 360 video content to its information stream, and its chief product officer Chris. Cox posted: "Especially on mobile phones, you can slowly turn the phone or tilt your hand up and down to see a 360-degree panoramic video, which will give users an immersive experience." In the field of virtual reality, Facebook has long planned. It worked with virtual reality helmet manufacturer Oculus and acquired it for US$2 billion last year.

The current situation in the virtual reality field is that hardware is developing rapidly, but there is a lack of corresponding content to follow up. This time, Facebook's move to add support for 360 video functions not only makes it a big step forward in the process of providing virtual reality content, It also means that the entire virtual reality industry has made progress in content. Currently, this technology mainly supports web and Android, and will be promoted to iOS in the next stage, which also means that virtual reality may enter the PC and mobile user markets with great development potential.

1. Content development is not as fast as hardware, and the virtual reality device market is facing cold

. In recent years, with the popularity of VR and wearable devices, virtual reality has become a trend. Various entrepreneurs and capitals from home and abroad have poured into this market. However, most of these companies focus on the development of virtual reality devices, but few are really focused on content. Therefore, a series of virtual reality hardware products such as virtual glasses and virtual helmets can often be seen in today's market, but high-value content cannot be seen.

The virtual reality market, which has been hyped up by capital, blindly focuses on external hardware, forgetting that high-quality content is the real need of users. Coupled with excessive costs and immature technology, this industry is already unable to develop high-quality content. Therefore, no matter how high-end the hardware is, users can only use these devices to play Mini games and watch a few videos. They cannot experience the real power of this technology at all, and naturally there is no user stickiness.

The development speed of hardware is too fast, but there is a lack of high-quality content to follow up. This is also the main reason why virtual reality devices are cold in the market in addition to the price factor of the product.

2. Facebook launches 360 videos to promote industry development in terms of content

. At Wednesday's press conference, Facebook showcased multiple video content such as the comedy small-category variety show "Saturday Night Live" provided by GoPro and NBC, the documentary section VICE, the discovery program Discovery and the movie Star Wars.

In fact, as early as March this year, YouTube released a feature to support 360 videos. Users can use it in conjunction with VR devices such as Oculus or Google Cardboard, which can obtain more shocking visual effects and enhance interactivity. In addition, GoPro developers have provided content that can be applied to virtual devices. But users who want to see 360 panoramic videos on both platforms need to actively search, which reduces the effort to promote new technologies.

Facebook streams have a billion monthly active users, so it's better able to introduce users to 360-degree videos. Facebook's team is also keen on 360 panoramic video technology, product management director Will. Kathercat said: "Over time, we have seen sharing become more mobile and more immersive. We've seen really cool 360-degree video content, which is a reasonable way to bring this experience to News Feed." Chris Cox said: "There is always something that attracts others to watch when you hold it in your hand for the first time. People will tell you they just saw it and let you see it too. There are not many such things, and this is one of them."

In addition, Facebook founder Mark. Eliot Zuckerberg has also emphasized that this technology can be applied to the gaming field. Facebook's Oculus company held the virtual reality content developers conference "Oculus Connect" in Las Vegas this week. They are reaching out to developers around the world to develop a large number of high-quality content for the Oculus VR helmet that will be available next year.

The layout of giants such as Facebook and YouTube in the virtual reality field is conducive to promoting the development of the industry from content and driving more content producers to participate in the construction of virtual reality videos or games and other content, which will have a profound impact on the development of the virtual reality industry.

3."Alliance" between virtual reality and video may be a good choice.

The 360 panoramic technology launched by Facebook this time is realized through mobile video. Just swipe or swing your phone and you can view video content from all angles. When watching videos on the PC, users can also achieve this experience with the mouse.

Currently, virtual reality technology is mainly used in the game market, but due to the lack of high-quality content and the niche of the user group, the situation is not good. Facebook's attempt can be seen as the beginning of virtual reality technology entering the video market, and this is a very good path:

From a market perspective, video has a very large user base on mobile and PC sides, and there are many potential content resources that can be developed in this market. If the high-quality content and technology can be perfectly combined, a new path will be opened up in this market;

from a user's perspective, the combination of virtual reality technology and video will bring a more novel and shocking viewing experience. This allows them to feel immersive without having to buy expensive hardware equipment; from the perspective of industry professionals, they have new goals and directions, and they do not have to struggle to squeeze into the virtual hardware market that has reached saturation in order to get a piece of the pie.

Although virtual reality technology is popular, if it wants to be popularized in the consumer market, it must continuously provide consumers with high-quality content. After all, no matter how gorgeous the external functional design is, it cannot cover up the emptiness of the content. The video market is a place where a lot of high-quality content can emerge, and developing into the video market is a beneficial strategy for all parties, so "alliance" between virtual reality technology and video is a good choice.

Editor: yvonne