The Black Shark came in to enter right at the start, and four big Tencent BG machines were delivered in the exchange.

Are you losing money or not?

"The layout of the metaverse should be a design project." A neighbor of the deal told Jinghe. It will be an in-depth setup, one by one, breaking down Tencent into hardware, software, and operations.

After more than six months of research, Tencent is finally starting to control access to the Metaverse with hardware. According to the 36Kr report of Jan. 10, Tencent plans to acquire Black Shark Technology for around 2.6-2.7 billion yuan. Following the completion of the acquisition, Black Shark will join the Platform and Content Business Group (PCG) led by Ren Yuxin.

Jinghe found that almost all Tencent VR BGs are satisfied and want to give it a try. Among them, four groups of Tencent Enterprise Development Group CDG are reviewing, and Tencent IEG Investment Group has a capital group led by the technology production line, and at least one group of Tencent Cloud and Smart Industry Group (CSIG). to follow.

Almost all virtual reality projects in the market have been phased out by Tencent.

shouldn't be a coincidence

Why did you choose Black Shark technology? You will have the same skepticism as the author.

Black Shark technology mainly focuses on gaming phones only by the commercial view layout and does not interfere with virtual reality. In terms of mobile gaming tracks, shipments of less than 1 million units per year and the overall market are generally limited.

People familiar with the matter told Jinghe that there were generally two decisions in Tencent's acquisition of Black Shark Technology. Huawei background, and the two sides have the foundation of trust. After Li Nachuan's advancement, Tencent's first metaverse hardware was finally acquired by Black Shark Technology.

At least one big businessman told Jinghe that VR tracks should be played by big companies. Based on the logic of companies such as Meta and ByteDance, it was agreed to acquire an outside company as an interference device. Of course, Tencent estimates that it expects a slowdown that will continue over the next three to five years.

In general, Jinghe believes that large companies entering the VR space follow the path of hardware - content applications - operating systems.After spending $ 2 billion to acquire VR headset company Oculus in 2014, one of Meta's next endeavors is the acquisition of CP companies such as the VR audio game “Rhythm Lightsaber”. Over the past two years, we have focused on developing AR and VR capabilities.

The $ 9 billion acquisition of Pico by Domestic ByteDance and the $ 2.7 billion acquisition of Black Shark Technology by Tencent will also follow. In other words, the financial situation of VR CP is expected to occur in 2022.

In terms of personnel, the domestic giants' virtual reality industry is expected to grow rapidly. In the past, Data has reported that Meta has invested nearly 20% of its current employees in VR / AR-related industries. Meta's VR / AR business is part of Facebook Reality Labs, the same company run by veteran company Andrew Bosworth.

According to the data, the department now employs nearly 10,000 people, or 17% of the company more than 58,000 employees at the start of the year, an increase of 5% in 2017. This number is growing.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is excited that VR / AR shipments lead to mobile shipments next year. This means that the C-end consumer electronics market is expected to grow into a trillion dollar market.

In this regard, many industry experts told Jinghe that the total home virtual reality market share is being monitored, and C-end shipments in 2021 will not exceed 500,000 units. All major companies are more reliable when it comes to shipping.

Research the XR market

Returning to Black Shark technology itself, it explores the XR industry in addition to gaming phones.

Previously, Black Shark had partnered with AR to develop Rokid and join ChinaJoy 2021 to jointly explore the vast knowledge of mobile phones.

Rokid Air was announced in September 2021. These AR glasses are not only compatible with smartphones such as Black Shark, but also for PC, Switch, PS4 and other console games to support virtual screen users . I make movies and play games.

Compared to VR glasses which require more sophisticated and supportive scenes, the Black Shark and Rokid collaboration has focused on creating a competitive gaming experience.

The total weight of the Black Shark 4 mobile phone equipped with Rockid Air does not exceed 300g, and the Rockid Air lightweight smart glasses can also be folded, which makes them suitable for many games on the big screen without weighing down the human body. and office work.

With this step-by-step collaboration, Black Shark sees the potential of the AR / VR realm and the vision of the Metaverse, and compares it to consumers of high-performance mobile phones and machines. , Black Shark enters the AR / VR market. Find the metaverse. The first hot pot will be a good choice for the long haul.

According to Lu Weibing, director of the Redmi brand, "Total mobile game shipments in 2020 will be around 1.7 million units." In the sale of mobile phones on JD.com in June 2021, only the iPhone 12 model has exceeded sales by 180w, and the market share of mobile games is not more than 3%.

In particular, the high-end Android phone camp uses the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon processor almost only after Huawei's shipments fell due to sanctions, making it difficult to widen the gaming gap.

At the same time, most of the mobile game users still have light and inconsistent games, and mobile big players include a small fraction of it, so even mobile games can improve performance and profitability to the highest level, it is also easy. It is difficult for enough consumers and thorough marketing

More than the competition in the Red Sea on mobile, it is better to change plans and objectives and become the pioneers of tomorrow. This is a turning point for the Black Shark and still meets Tencent's needs.

Tencent finally entered the metaverse hardware realm

It's often said that building the metaverse isn't meant to be a word, but to be accomplished by many companies working together. As a Tencent with two strengths in gaming and community discussion, Tencent has some differences in the area of ​​metaverse points.

However, in light of the recent rise of hearts in the global market and the Sino-US trade war, the importance of technology and hardware has surpassed. Water without roots is like a tree without roots.

Tencent's layout for cloud games, game engines, etc. confirmed that Tencent is not expected to become a service provider in the future metaverse.

Currently, Tencent Xianyou cloud games now bring mobile phones, PCs and TVs, complement the previous experience. In the future, Tencent Xianyou will partner with NVIDIA of cloud gaming technology to achieve a number of major innovations in mobile cloud gaming solutions.

Epic Games, the developer of Unreal Engine, also acquired a 42% stake in Tencent in 2012. One of the most advanced 3D generation platforms in the world, Unreal Engine is used to create futuristic metaverse scenes. .

And this time, Tencent has finally started using AR / VR devices, which is the way to enter the transition.

In fact, in early 2015, Tencent announced its own concept of VR game ecology at the miniStation game console conference, and at the same time launched the official VR website, and recruitment planning from Tencent's global VR developers started.

At the time, Tencent's future work on virtual reality applications was primarily in games, movies and TV, online chat, and cards. And fun content is the key to taking VR, followed by life. Tencent's global VR recruiting campaign focuses on supporting developers in four areas: account system, social system, distribution platform and payment platform.

At this time, the mobile Internet is still hazy, and the concept of the real Internet has not been mentioned, but since the establishment of Tencent for the first time, it can be seen that Tencent has always held it, feelings are always done.

The dependence on users and large-scale relationships, the integrated development of hardware and content, and the establishment of a VR user service platform make Tencent the event that will grow in the world. VR arena.

On the way to the platform, Tencent also briefly touched on VR hardware products. At Tencent T-Day in 2018, Tencent introduced TenVR, China's first VR head-mounted display device, but it's still in the engineering proof stage, and the weight and resolution aren't better for it. the other articles. Competition, then Tencent's VR hardware market calm.

However, in the past three years, Tencent has invested well. In 2021 alone, Tencent acquired or invested in more than 100 sports-related film companies, which took three days to acquire or invest. a. ~

Tencent's current motto is "Let the experts be the experts", and continue to take root in social and sports, where other things are good to share. The Black Shark takeover may be true due to the seeds of Black Shark's "game material".

As the saying goes that it's better to lean over a large tree for shade, let's look forward to seeing what kind of VR and metaverse fruit the big tree of Tencent will bring.