IDC recently released “Ten Insights into China’s Metaverse Market in 2023”. The report pointed out that since the concept of metaverse was born, paying consumers have concentrated in the group of “technical pioneers”. With increased publicity and application upgrades, it will gradually radiate to a wider user group. “Healthy group”, “high-end quality group” and “fashion trend group” are all easier to try and pay because of the attraction of a specific scene and application. The payment ability and habits of consumer groups will play a vital role in the formation of the Metaverse business model.
The following are the details:
In 2022, China’s metaverse market has experienced an inevitable process from being on the cusp of the storm to returning to rationality, and has made some staged progress in consumer hardware, content ecology, and infrastructure.
Although it is difficult to determine when the metaverse will come, breakthroughs in technical barriers, development of the industrial chain, and increased consumer attention have become the main theme of market development in the next 1-2 years.
In this regard, IDC summarizes and gives ten insights into China’s metaverse market in 2023, the specific contents are as follows:
Insight 1: AR/VR hardware acceleration transforms from entertainment device to productivity tool
In the past, the interaction mode of AR/VR hardware devices was mainly based on a single instruction operation interaction, and the handle is a typical representative of the input tool. Limited by this, games have become the initial scene for AR/VR hardware devices to open up the consumer market. In the future, de-peripheral interaction such as gesture input and voice input will help it transform from an entertainment device to a productivity tool. The new input method creates possibilities for more productivity needs, and also provides a huge imagination space for more office and industrial scenes. This is where the biggest difference between the development direction of AR/VR devices and other game consoles lies.
Insight 2: The process of virtualization of real scenes is gradually accelerating, and the sense of integration between the virtual world and the real world continues to increase
With rich accessories, expanded content, and diversified interactions, outdoor fitness and leisure scenes enter the home, work and meeting scenes get rid of office space constraints, and the virtualization process of real scenes is accelerated. With the addition of leg trackers, handle motors, virtual gloves, etc., virtual devices have evolved from a single visual virtualization to multi-sensory virtualization such as touch and smell, and the sense of integration with the real world has continued to increase.
Insight 3: The Trend of Mixed Reality (MR) on Hardware Devices is Prominent
The addition of components such as a color see-through camera makes it easier to switch between AR/VR functions on a single device. When wearing helmets/glasses, real scenes are progressing from black and white to color rendering, and the number and level of color cameras in the future will become the key direction of competition for hardware device parameters. New products launched in 2023 will be released more as mixed reality products.
Insight 4: Content Creation Producers Have More Monetization Opportunities, and the Ecosystem of Developers is Emerging
For different 2C content production companies, 2B solution companies, and individual content creators, leading hardware manufacturers and content platforms are exploring more possibilities in developer ecological construction. Technical tool support, cash rewards, traffic support and other methods will help the early establishment of the metaverse content ecology.
Insight 5: Intensive marketing and subsidies for target users by machine manufacturers will continue
Since the economic environment has a certain impact on the consumer confidence of residents, the current promotion methods will still play a certain role. Continuous check-in cashback & multi-period interest-free promotions, celebrity endorsements, offline advertising, online multi-platform KOL support, store expansion, etc. are still necessary means to stimulate consumption in 2023.
Insight 6: The progress of metaverse “breaking the circle” will show obvious characteristics of regional and industry aggregation
Under the guidance of policies, key cities will accelerate the formation of industrial clusters; scale applications will take the lead in key industries such as industrial production, cultural tourism, integrated media, education and training. The progress of “breaking the circle” in the early stage of the metaverse will show the characteristics of regional and industry aggregation, and will evolve into “be rich first and get rich later” in the future.
Insight 7: Metaverse consumers have begun to develop payment habits
Since the concept of Metaverse was born, paying consumers have been concentrated in the group of “Technology Pioneers”. With increased publicity and application upgrades, it will gradually radiate to a wider user group. “Healthy group”, “high-end quality group” and “fashion trend group” are all easier to try and pay because of the attraction of a specific scene and application. The payment ability and habits of consumer groups will play a vital role in the formation of the Metaverse business model.
Insight 8: The investment and financing of the Metaverse sector is mainly based on small and medium-scale events, and the short-term future will focus on hardware manufacturing. The Metaverse concept company is still in the early stages of development
According to the public investment and financing information in the past year, IDC found that, judging from the scale of investment and financing events in the Metaverse sector, small and medium-scale events below 10 million yuan accounted for more than 60% of all investment and financing events; Look, the investment and financing events of hardware-related companies accounted for more than 80%; from the distribution of rounds, most companies are still in the seed angel round. This trend will continue in 2023, which means that most of the registered companies of the metaverse concept in China are still in the early stages of development and construction.
Insight 9: Technology improvement of the entire industry chain has become a key direction
The development of the Metaverse industry must rely on the common progress of the entire industry chain. The performance of new display technologies, mass production and yield of key devices, and content production tools are the top priorities in construction. In the current domestic industrial chain, the output value of most enterprises is relatively small.
Insight 10: Metaverse and Web 3 will grow together, promote each other, and form a synergy in the future
Although they are two different technical fields, the mutual relationship between Metaverse and web3 deserves attention. In the long run, web3 and metaverse will enhance each other. In the past three decades, the IT field has undergone three major shocks: the spread of the Internet, the emergence of mobile technology, and the accelerated innovation of the cloud. IDC believes that the next shock in the technology world will be jointly promoted by Web3 and the Metaverse.
