Wevr, a company that describes itself as a virtual reality community and a VR media player for professional creatives, will develop a cross-platform network dedicated to feature virtual reality content, since the company received a funding of $25 million from investors such as Samsung and HTC. The company wants to aim to a segment of the market that will be valued $80 billion by 2025, according to tech analysts.
Transport is the name of the new VR content platform that is already in its private beta stage. Virtual reality creators and users will be able to interact and enjoy the experience of free and paid content through the app. Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR will be compatible with this new innovative store that began as a startup.
Other plans include the creation of a cloud service to store the content, an engine to develop virtual reality products and the impulse of VR pieces created by independent filmmakers. Last year, the company financed several people with $1 million, as a result, four film pieces were selected for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier.
“Transport is purpose-built to extend and embrace VR creative’s aspirations with software solutions, enabling them to create, produce, distribute, and grow audiences on all headsets worldwide,” says Neville Spiteri, co-founder and CEO of Wevr. “Through our collaboration with startup KaleidoscopeVR we discovered Tyler Hurd and partnered with him on a new interactive experience that will be showcased at Tribeca Film Festival,” he added, according to Fortune.
Neville Spiteri explained that getting the proper technology to create and publish virtual reality products is the first obstacle for smaller and independent filmmakers, that’s why Wevr wants to finance them. He added that finding a home and a community that hold the hands of filmmakers while they make and promote their work is another obstacle. In the end, Transport will make the publishing process easier, he said.
Research firms such as Tractica and Goldman Sachs have announced a great future for the augmented reality market. It is calculated that 200 million VR headsets, will be in the hands of customers worldwide by 2020. Moreover, analysts seem to suggest that the VR market will be valued $80 billion in 2015, since brands such as Microsoft, Oculus, Sony, Samsung, Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Valve, and probably Apple, are going to invest big amounts of money in the segment.
“Fundamentally, virtual/augmented reality creates a new and even more intuitive way to interact with a computer. In the world of virtual/augmented reality, the controls of the computer become what we are already familiar with through gestures and graphics. We believe VR/AR has the potential to spawn a multibillion-dollar industry, and possibly be as game changing as the advent of the PC,” wrote Goldman Sachs analysts on January 13 in a note to clients.
Mr. Spiteri has also great expectations for augmented reality since he expects that premium experiences on PC and consoles are going to be well received and will generate big profits. He mentioned that in hardware-and-platform cycles it is important to establish brands before big competitors enter the segment.
Source: Fortune