Micro-whale technology content and hardware go hand in hand: Li Ruigang spent 1 billion yuan to develop VR

Li Ruigang entered a huge local market with 450 million households. It is estimated that on the basis of 11,000 units/10,000 households in 2015, 310 million households in China will watch smart TV in five years. On the occasion of its first anniversary, Li Ruigang's team submitted its report card for its second entrepreneurial work.

On the occasion of its first anniversary, Li Ruigang's team submitted its report card for its second entrepreneurial work.

On August 1, Micro Whale Technology launched 78-inch curved Internet TV "Sky Screen," CEO Li Huaiyu said: "Sky Screen contains a lot of black technology, is the flagship product of micro whale, large and appropriate, size, ID, content, sound, control to the extreme."

Exactly a year ago, Li Ruigang and his former old partner Li Huaiyu entered Internet TV. Later, they joined Feng Xincheng, the founder of New Weekly, who vowed to destroy TV. Tencent Ali lavished 2 billion yuan, hoping to replicate and surpass the success of Pepsist. In five years, this company became the world's largest IPTV operator with users and went public in 2011.

Li Ruigang entered a huge local market with 450 million households. It is estimated that on the basis of 11,000 units/10,000 households in 2015, 310 million households in China will watch smart TV in five years.

However, the competition is also extremely fierce. The clear profit model has prompted traditional TV giants such as Samsung, Skyworth, Hisense, and TCL to accelerate the transformation of the Internet. Xiaomi and LeTV, which have emerged as disruptors, have also taken the lead.

Microwhale pursues a strategy of going hand in hand with hardware and content. Its first-year report card can produce a long table and lead its domestic counterparts in the cutting-edge VR field.

The one-year report card

is different from the emphasis on resource integration at the beginning of its establishment. One year later, what Microwhale Technology wants to convey is that hardware manufacturing is not inferior to or even better than TV giants. "Tianmu represents the development proposition of micro-whale, breaking the limitations of the industry with better products." Li Huaiyu told reporters.

How shocking the 78-inch curved split smart TV is can only be felt by consumers when they move it into the living room. Li Huaiyu revealed: "Tianmu was developed in South Korea and has almost reached the extreme. It contains a lot of black technologies, and even Samsung has not released them."

So far, Microwhale has released five 43/49/50/55/78-inch Internet TVs, and has privately customized the world's largest 120-inch product for TV stations.

As a newcomer to smart TV, Li Huaiyu expressed satisfaction with his performance so far."In the first year, we are better than other competing products. Although the data cannot be disclosed for the time being, it is definitely very rare in the industry." The competing products he calls may be Xiaomi and LeTV.

The smart terminal is just one of the entrances to Micro Whale and its parent company, Chinese Cultural Industry Fund (CMC). Li Ruigang explained,"Micro Whale is a platform, not a single product line. It is the core link to open up the entire industry of Chinese culture."

The Chinese Cultural Industry Fund headed by Li Ruigang is the first cultural fund registered with the National Development and Reform Commission, with an initial scale of 5 billion yuan. Behind it is giants such as China Development Bank, China Merchants Group, and Shanghai Oriental Media. The layout extends from culture, entertainment, and sports to middle class lifestyles, Internet platforms, VR, etc.,"The Voice of China" is managed by it.

The idea of opening up the core links of the industry comes from "The Good Voice of China." Li Huaiyu once admitted that projects like "The Good Voice of China" invested heavily in early production, but in the end, they showed serious shortcomings on the user side. The emergence of micro whales is to change this situation.

Li Ruigang further explained: "CMC's future business will be combined around micro-whales. Because with micro-whales, all investments and businesses of Chinese culture will have the most down-to-earth foothold for ordinary consumers."

Smart TVs ultimately compete for the richness of TV content owned by each family, and thereby increase the number of users and achieve profitability. With a terminal-oriented foothold, CMC's content advantages have been gradually exerted in the first year.

Specific content investment can be listed in a long table, including investing in Manchester City, TVB Hong Kong dramas, Chinese Super League, Oriental DreamWorks, China's New Songs, e-sports ESUC and NEST events... It is difficult to describe in detail, try to achieve full coverage for cultural, sports and entertainment that are in strong demand from young people., in order to compete for the right to speak on content.

Li Huaiyu emphasized that these content is not pushed to users in a flash."Although our content is the largest on the platform, it is not a shelf-style display, but an organic combination, similar to a customized cocktail. For example, through TV big data analysis, the interface that everyone sees is different, and the recommended content is different. This is the biggest difference between micro-whale and others."

Unlike other Internet platforms that burn money to increase the number of users, the profit model of smart TV is clearly visible. Li Huaiyu said that subscription to content itself can be profitable. In addition, hardware equipment, terminals, etc. are profit points.

The industry prospects of Internet TV are quite attractive. Since 2013, the turnover of smart home appliances in Tmall Electric City has reached an average annual compound growth rate of nearly 300%. It is estimated that 310 million households in China will watch smart TV in five years.

Competition in this extremely huge market is also extremely fierce. In addition to traditional TV giants such as Samsung, Skyworth, Hisense, and TCL accelerating the transformation of the Internet, Xiaomi and LeTV, which have emerged as disruptors, have also taken the lead. In terms of comparison between the two camps, traditional TV giants temporarily have the upper hand.

1 billion yuan comprehensive layout VR

latecomers decided to take the lead in cutting-edge fields.

In April this year, Micro Whale announced that it would invest 1 billion yuan in VR Innovation Industry Fund worldwide to build a thousand-person geek innovation team, and teamed up with partners to produce 10,000 hours of VR premium content, including games, variety shows, live broadcasts, Panoramic short films, documentaries and movies. Li Huaiyu revealed that VR shooting is being carried out globally.

He played a VR shooting scene in Xizang for reporters. This was a brand new experience. Since the VR shooting was three-dimensional and full coverage, the on-site personnel had to find a cover to hide it.

At present, Micro-Whale VR has made breakthroughs in the production of various categories of content, including the full VR recording of "China's Good Songs"; its sports Olympic Power and Shengli Family produced the first VR version of the football event in China; Zou Shiming Boxing Match; Steel Man Adili wearing a Micro-Whale VR camera to shoot the whole process; underwater world, Chinese kung fu film shooting, etc.

The photographer used a Jaunt VR camera, which also hints at the microwhale's hardware layout outside of the content.

At the beginning of 2015, Chinese Culture and Disney invested in Jaunt, becoming the first China investor to enter the top international VR company; in 2016, they joined hands with NextVR.

"The micro whale wants to make a VR helmet for the ultimate experience. The starting point is a 4K screen and the future is 8K.(Currently, mobile phones are 2K)," Li Huaiyu told 21st Century Business Herald: "We have a large research team."

Li Jian and Li Huaiyu, art consultants of Micro Whale Technology, revealed for the first time a heavyweight project in VR hardware development."They are working with Google to 'daydream' to make Micro Whale hardware under its Day Dream system (VR system). Facebook and HTC are both closed and their growth will be limited."

Regarding the future path of micro-whale VR,"There is still a way to explore the realization of the VR business model, but the innovation of any business model relies on the innovation of core technologies. After solving core technologies such as vertigo and delay, we can reduce costs." Li Huaiyu said.

Editor: yvette