Meta's metaverse pursuit, costing them billions, contrasts sharply with the success of Rokid's AR product, which sold 20,000 units during China's Double 11 shopping festival, setting a new industry record!

In recent years, Double 11 has generated fewer eye-catching news stories, mainly due to plateauing platform growth, a scarcity of blockbuster products, and audience fatigue with livestreaming sales.

However, Double 11 2023 delivered a significant consumer electronics news story: Rokid announced record-breaking sales of 20,000 units of its AR product.

Analysis reveals that since Apple's summer release of Vision Pro, the XR industry has accelerated significantly—with major international players like Meta, and domestic startups like Rokid, launching new products or securing new funding.

IDC also projects market growth exceeding 45% in 2024. Technologically, advancements in Pancake lenses, light waveguides, eye tracking, and 6DOF are constantly emerging.

This signals that the XR industry is on the verge of an explosion.

XR Industry Sees a Dawn

In 2023, a year marked by ChatGPT's impact on technology, the XR sector has also flourished.

Beyond Apple's Vision Pro launch, the industry has seen remarkable progress. The following are some key industry events from October:

Meta Quest 3 launched, touted as the "first mainstream headset built for mixed reality," featuring "4K+ infinite display resolution"; The classic game Assassin's Creed Nexus VR version was released, launching first on Meta Quest 2, 3, and Pro; Transfr, a US-based VR company for medium-skill professional training, secured $40 million in Series C funding; Fast Travel Games, a VR game development studio, received $4 million in investment; AR contact lens developer XPANCEO secured $40 million in investment; Brilliant Labs, a developer of generative AI embedded AR glasses, announced securing $3 million in funding for its AI-powered AR glasses.

In China, the spatial computing chip design company, Gravity, secured hundreds of millions of Yuan in funding; Raybird Innovation, focused on AR, received tens of millions of Yuan in investment; The 2023 World VR Industry and Metaverse Expo was held in Nanchang; The 2023 China Shanghai VR/AR Industry Expo was held; ...

In 2020, subsidized by Meta, the Oculus Quest 2 entered the market at a low price of $299, quickly surpassing 10 million units sold.

Shortly after, Zuckerberg proposed the famous "10 million theory": 10 million users represent a "singularity" for VR hardware, beyond which VR hardware and application/content developers can achieve sustained profitability, thus driving the exponential development of the VR ecosystem.

However, this "singularity" did not materialize.

In reality, XR products haven't completed product validation, with many remaining in a "feature phone" stage. Meanwhile, Meta's Reality Labs, responsible for developing related technologies, loses nearly $4 billion per quarter.

Rokid's founder and CEO, Mingming Zhu, expressed skepticism towards subsidy strategies in a media interview.

He believes that price wars indicate a lack of brand confidence, have historically failed, and can destroy an entire industry.

"A thriving industry must have multiple players. A healthy market system is the true game rule for ultimate success." - Mingming Zhu

The newly released Quest 3 has a starting price of $499, $200 more than the Quest 2, signaling Meta's abandonment of price wars.

In contrast, Rokid never adopted a subsidy strategy. Zhu positions Rokid as: "a system software company hidden within exquisite hardware products."

In August 2023, Rokid launched its consumer-grade personal spatial computing platform, Rokid AR Studio, announcing the transition of AR products from entertainment to productivity.

Beyond consumer sales, Rokid's system-level AR products have been deployed in various industrial settings in China, including museums, nuclear power plants, and new energy vehicle companies, further demonstrating the growing maturity of the XR sector.