The dozens of Internet booms in China have followed the pains of the industry from PC to mobile. It seems that every day there will be new models, new technologies, and new contents that instill inspiring people. Xiaobian has also been paying attention to industry changes. Bring more thought and fission.
The VR virtual reality talked about this time, from initial infiltration to development, has grown rapidly in China. According to data from iResearch, the number of VR users in 2016 is 1.425 million. By 2020, this figure will increase to 25.333 million. The development trend of domestic VR industry chain is relatively stable. From smart hardware, content production, application platform to media environment, a clear The VR industry chain has taken initial shape. The new release of Baidu's VR browser has really become a "aphrodisiac" for the entire industry, and it's not entirely clear, but what is Baidu's layout for VR in the future? And what's behind this VR browser is what's worth pursuing. What?
Recently, Tata has had the privilege of making a special trip to see this mysterious force in Shanghai. Let Tata take you into Baidu's VR browser team to discover the secret behind the product:
China's first VR browser. Under what circumstances was it born?
Reply:
The Baidu VR browser team was established in May 2016. Two months after its establishment, the first Beta version was released on July 15. The birth of Baidu VR browser is driven by internal and external factors:
1) External background:
VR outlets have come: 2016 was called the first year of VR. From concept to technology to products, from hardware to software to content, their respective relationships are competitive, complementary, and cooperative, and the business ecosystem has begun to take shape.
Large foreign manufacturers have deployed VR browsers: In the PC era, browsers were the gateway to the Internet. Grasping it took control of most of the traffic. In the era of VR, is the important entrance for VR device traffic also in the browser? The answer is not yet clear. However, in the first half of this year, Google, Samsung, Firefox and other international Internet IT companies have already launched their own VR browsers to deploy the VR of the Internet world.
2) Internal background:
The fertile ground for the birth of technology products: Baidu, as a technology company, has always maintained a high level of curiosity and a keen sense of smell on new technologies. The vigorous development of VR field, Baidu students have always had a high degree of attention.
The Inheritance and Development of PC Browser: The team of Baidu PC Browser focused on browser products for many years, has rich product experience and strong technical advantages. From the second half of 2015, the team began to seek new business growth points, after many parties In-depth research, and ultimately choose to combine with VR, starting from the browser field where the team is good at, positioning to create a converged VR browser platform, it can be said that both inheritance and development.
In short, the birth of Baidu's VR browser can be summed up in 4 words—follow-up.
What is the biggest difference (or advantage) between VR browser and other online VR experience products?
Reply:
Compared with competing products in the industry, our advantage is that we have the most complete VR resources in the entire network, including live broadcast, video, and pictures, which solve the biggest problem of VR industry lack of content.
The lack of content is a problem in the current VR industry. Baidu students use the exclusive VR browser technology to VR existing webpages, break the current scarcity of VR resources, and have the most complete VR resources on the entire network.
As China's first VR browser, what does it mean to the industry?
Reply:
1) Tools that don't do content are not good platforms
Whether it is a PC or a mobile, a clear trend can be seen in the past year: all the major tools have been transformed into content platforms. Compared to other VR browsers in the industry, we have not confined ourselves to a tool-based product from the beginning. Instead, we have positioned ourselves as a content aggregating platform to increase user stickiness and reduce product substitutability through content. Realization provides more space.
2) Cross platform features + webVR to create VR ecosystem
The VR ecosystem is still in a state of fragmentation. For users, it is not only necessary to make choices in various types of hardware, but also to face the problem that the content of service providers is scattered everywhere and the format standards are not uniform.
Baidu VR browser will support cross-platform (Android/iOS/PC/all-in-one), combined with webVR technology, so that all hardware and content are in the same ecosystem. It can not only facilitate users and enhance the experience, but also can promote VR intelligent hardware and VR content providers to achieve unity in terms of technical standards and content formats as early as possible.
What is this fun or unforgettable experience (difficulties in breaking) of this Baidu VR browser from the product concept to the planning stage?
Reply:
From the completion of the team formation to the release of the first Beta version, it took only two months. This can be said to be unprecedented in the industry. Because of the results of the two months of work, competing products should at least be used for one year or so.
Apart from our strong technical accumulation, Baidu’s wolf culture is also reflected here.
In the coming 2016, the development of VR is ubiquitous, but most of the discussion is about the game, interest, shopping and other industries. What breakthroughs will these applications be combined with Baidu's VR browser?
Reply:
As a VR browser, in fact, with different industries have a unique combination of points. For each vertical domain, such as video, live broadcast, shopping, information, social networking, etc., it can be accessed and realized through webVR technology.
At present, breakthroughs still need to be made. On the one hand, it is the webVR technology and industry standards. On the other hand, it is necessary to mobilize and unite VR-related vertical domain partners to establish VR industry standards and solutions together.
Tata Experience Products
Finally, introduce the heroes behind this "VR browser". Next, do you have any new product plans to disclose?
Reply:
(a) The team behind the VR browser:
The project was initiated by Baidu's browser team and promoted landing. During the process, it cooperated with Baidu's input method and cloud security cdn and other departments, which was a model of cross-team cooperation.
(B) The next product plan:
1) Interactive innovation: Voice input on October 15 and online gesture on December 15. The 15th of each month is the time of our release. The team often jokingly said that this is a product with a strong sense of ceremonies.
2) VR live broadcast: In cooperation with content producers, based on Baidu Cloud CDN, explore live shooting, splicing, encoding, transmission, and playback technologies to provide a new immersive 3D/VR live broadcast experience.
3) webVR: With the industry's elite to promote the standardization of the establishment of webVR, promote the existing VR of 2D/3D web pages, provide an efficient development framework to facilitate the rapid development of webVR applications.
4) Multi-platform VR Browser: Create multi-platform VR browsers based on Android, iOS, PC and All-in-One.
Finally, we are most concerned about the issue, iOS version can have it?
Reply:
The iOS version is planned to be released during the year; VR browsers for PCs and all-in-ones are also planned.
The industry needs change, and technology needs innovation. Although the VR market has broad prospects, problems such as unstable network environment, high quality content, and scarcity of open platforms have become the industry's impending difficulties. We believe that with a VR platform such as Baidu's VR browser, more PGCs can participate in the output of VR content, which greatly solves these problems in VR.
In the end, the debut must be the highlight, let us see this mysterious force!
Click "Read the original", you can enjoy the Baidu VR browser tired Oh ~ ~ ~
