Storm Mirror CEO Huang Xiaojie responded positively to layoffs

The letter also details the sales figures of Storm Mirror. "Today, our hardware sales have exceeded 2 million units, and the market share in JD.com is over 80%. Users use more than 30 minutes per day. Users exceeded 1.5 million. This shows that users are actively embracing VR, and with the experience upgrade brought by Daydream, users' usage time and activity will further increase."

The following is the original letter of the open letter:

Thank you for your attention to the recent adjustment of Storm Mirror. Regardless of the suggestions, criticisms or concerns, I believe that everyone is kind, because everyone cares about the VR industry, as a representative of the domestic VR industry. What happened to the mirror.

In the past year, VR has gone from being obscured to being hot, and today the industry is cooling down. Many people are worried: "Is there a future for VR? Is the timing of VR too early?" This reminds me of the first time I used Oculus two years ago. Although it was still dizzy, it immediately reminded me of "The Matrix" - isn't VR today the prototype of Matrix? If a company can create a world that makes it impossible to distinguish between reality and virtuality, it can make people here. In the world of entertainment, making friends, making money, spending, and even experiencing a variety of different life, then this company must be the most valuable company in the world. Of course, today's technology is far from the experience of "The Matrix", and the development of history has never been linear, but I believe that ultimately VR will be the ultimate living state of mankind.

I firmly believe in the future of VR.

The past October was very interesting, and there were three important conferences about VR, from Google, Facebook and Microsoft.

On October 4th, Google launched the Daydream View helmet, somatosensory handle and Daydream ready Pixel phone at its annual product launch. This is a qualitative upgrade for the mobile VR experience because it not only solves the stun and clarity issues, but also enhances the interaction. Soon ordinary users only need to spend 200 RMB, buy a Cardboard helmet and a handle, and a Daydream mobile phone can have a good VR experience. In the coming year, I believe that the flagship machine of mainstream Android mobile phone manufacturers will launch Daydream mobile phones. In 2017, there are at least 10 million to 20 million Daydream mobile phones in the world. It is estimated that at least 30 million to 50 million Daydream mobile phones will be added globally in 2018, and at least 100 million new ones will be added in 2019: this will be close to 2 in the next three years. The number of billions of Daydream mobile phones. This will be a new blue ocean, a new growth point for the entire Internet; the same is true for VR.

On October 7th, Facebook hosted the Oculus Developer Conference, which demonstrated the future of virtual social networking and announced the launch of a mobile all-in-one. Oculus' CTO Carmack predicts: "I think the future belongs to mobile. We should consider more than one billion users. Such a large user is not built on the PC platform. The VR software on the PC will play the "innovation group" and "experiment The role of "room" becomes the source of creativity, and successful examples will be promoted to the low-end platform." This judgment is exactly the same as the mobile route that the Storm Mirror began on the first day of its establishment! We believe that 90% of the future The VR market is mobile, and 10% is for PC or host platforms.

On October 26th, Microsoft held a new product launch conference, launched a $299 VR helmet, and equipped with software such as Paint 3D and Creators Update to make 3D production simple and easy for everyone to operate, just like everyone will now Just like Office Office software, let everyone become the builder of content.

The involvement of operating system companies such as Internet giants such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft will undoubtedly drive the rapid development of the entire VR ecosystem. Therefore, I think it is the eve of the VR outbreak. The development of VR in 2017 will definitely exceed everyone's expectations.

In the past two years, because the entire Chinese VR industry is poor, the Storm Mirror has to do a lot of basic work as a pioneer. In addition to hardware, we also do application stores, video playback, social and gaming, and industry verticals. Application attempts, such as real estate, automotive, travel, UGC, etc. Today, our hardware sales have exceeded 2 million units, and the market share in Jingdong has exceeded 80%. The daily usage time of users exceeds 30 minutes, and the monthly active users exceed 1.5 million. This shows that users are actively embracing VR, and with the experience upgrade brought by Daydream, users' usage time and activity will further increase.

This capital cold winter is very cold. For the team that once we had more than 500 people, there was a lot of business pressure, so we did the splitting and layoffs some time ago. First of all, the business that has achieved certain results is incubated and becomes an ecological subsidiary, with the help of external capital for better development. In addition, through layoffs to survive the fittest, improve internal operational efficiency, and focus on business. Now there are 300 people in the magic mirror team. This is still the largest VR company in the domestic team. We will focus on the core software and hardware platforms to make the helmet, core technology and portal platform better.

We should be glad that in this VR Internet revolution, China and the United States are almost at the same starting line; of course, Americans are relatively technically leading, but I believe that Chinese companies will catch up quickly and use huge market to make model innovations. .

Please be more tolerant of VR. Don't over-see it because of the short-term benefits of this industry, and don't over-indone it because of some turmoil.

I feel that every Chinese VR practitioner is worthy of respect, because everyone is brave and trying hard to make various attempts. These innovations will promote the development of the industry, and we will soon welcome the spring of VR.

2017 is destined to be a year of VR exponential outbreaks; with Daydream's help, I believe the mobile VR experience will be better. The sales of Storm Mirror will exceed 10 million units next year. In the next 5 years, we hope to serve 1 billion users!

Storm Mirror CEO Huang Xiaojie