According to the news obtained by the VR industry chain, Storm Mirror has recently launched a round of layoffs. According to the information, the layoffs may involve about half of the company's personnel. It is expected that this round of layoffs will be completed this week.
Storm Mirror was formally established in early 2015 and is a company of Storm Group, focusing on VR content and hardware. In mid-2015, Feng Xin released the strategy of Storm Mirror in the field of VR. From the aspects of content production, offline channel cooperation, VR incubator, open SDK, investment, etc., the development ideas after Storm Mirror were expounded. Feng Xin later said in an interview with the media that Mirror will develop 210 partners in 2015, including supporting 100 teams for panoramic shooting, Storm Video to provide a playback platform, launching a business model to help the content side profit; helping 100 games In the creative unit, the initial storm does not charge any game share; in addition, Storm Video will look for 10 entrepreneurial partners to jointly expand the virtual reality imaging market.
Feng Xin said that in the two years of 2015 and 2016, the investment in the storm will continue to rise. This VR project will not make money in the past two or three years. It is estimated that about 1 billion yuan will be invested in the early stage to expand the user base and upgrade the mirror products. For this state of burning money, there are expectations and preparations for the storm. Feng Xin also believes that many Internet companies in China will join the VR business in the past few years. After this, Storm Mirror continuously launched five or six VR glasses products.
According to Sohu Technology, the layoffs of Storm Mirror may be related to the following factors:
1, the VR market is getting coldThe attention of the capital market to VR has recently fallen to the lowest level in recent years. In the early stage, some capitals have already completed the VR project card by means of investment. As the entire smart hardware market is more rational, VR has also been affected.
In addition to the capital market, shipments of products in the retail market have also begun to decline in recent months. Sohu Technology learned from several VR glasses factories in Shenzhen that since the beginning of the year, the shipments of mobile VR glasses (which need to be used with mobile phones) have been climbing. By July of this year, the entire market has reached the highest shipments, conservatively estimating the current month. Shipments are about 600-700 million units. After August, shipments began to decline. It is currently estimated that the overall monthly shipments will be up to 4-5 million units.
According to the information obtained by Sohu.com, after the VR market became cold, due to the proximity to Thanksgiving and Christmas, the shipments in foreign markets did not change much, and the main shrinkage was in the domestic market. It is said that the vast majority of sales in the market today are contributed by foreign markets. Some manufacturers have revealed to Sohu Technology that the monthly shipments in the domestic market may have dropped to around 500,000 units.
Along with the shipment of VR glasses, there is also the price of the product. Previously, Sohu Technology had specifically reported the production and price of mobile VR glasses. Due to the complete set of industrial chain, mobile VR glasses with high technical content in the outside world, many manufacturers believe that there is no technology at all, the middle is simple Material procurement and assembly. Although the ex-factory price of glasses with a slight grade is around RMB 15-80, as long as you dare to buy, the glasses with low-end 8, 9 RMB can be seen everywhere.
The VR all-in-one is a product between mobile VR glasses and professional PC helmet-mounted VR glasses. In April, the ex-factory price of low-end products was about 500 yuan. In just half a year, some manufacturers have sold "VR" players based on previous MP4 or tablet solutions, and the price is less than 200 yuan. The low-end VR one-piece glasses with somatosensory function are only tens of dollars more expensive than the player.
2, the problem of the business of the mirrorSince the storm mirror entered the VR field earlier, the pre-storm had a very high market share in the VR field, but as more and more companies intervened in the VR market, the mobile VR glasses market homogenization competition was fierce. The sales of the products were not as expected. In the stage where users are very sensitive to product prices, it is difficult for Stormwind's products to compete with Shenzhen's cottage industry chain.
Some manufacturers have revealed to Sohu Technology that before the storm mirror has appeared to cut the order (after the order was destroyed). However, the relevant person of Storm Mirror told Sohu Technology that this has a certain relationship with the latest product planning of Mirror. Since the "small M" is coming soon, the mirror needs to accumulate capacity, so the order for the old product is cut, which is a normal iteration.
3, the giant enters the magic mirror platform advantage is no longerWith the advent of the domestic Internet giant, the advantage of the storm-first mirror is no longer the advantage. After the development of VR business on video platforms such as Youtu and Aiqiyi, the original content partners began to lose to these platforms, which also drove the loss of users.
From the previous vendors' routines, vendors with a slightly larger scale will open their own open platforms, trying to provide better services to partners and gather more users. However, according to Sohu.com, the alliances and platforms that these vendors do are basically not binding. Most stakeholders will join various platforms. This will lead to people going higher once they have a better platform. The ripples of water flowing down.
It is understood that Storm Mirror has undergone two rounds of financing, of which in April 2015, the financing was 10 million US dollars, and the valuation was about 50 million US dollars. At the beginning of 2016, the second round of financing was obtained with a financing amount of RMB 230 million and a valuation of RMB 1.43 billion. It is said that the previous storm mirror has started the third round of financing.
If the information on the layoffs of Storm Mirror is true, it may indicate that the entire VR market is welcoming a new round of adjustment. In the case that low-end VR glasses can not provide a better experience, the high-end VR helmet products consumer market is limited in size, and the content can not be quickly followed up, the rapidly expanding VR bubble has been on the verge of breaking down for more than half a year. Especially for some VR startup teams whose technical threshold is not high or there is no “pardâ€, they may already have preparations for winter.
After getting the rumors of the storm mirror layoffs, Sohu Technology contacted the relevant personnel of the Storm Mirror Market Department. It said that the Storm Mirror has recently been adjusted internally, but all related operations are normal.
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