APAC leads the way for 28bn virtual reality market
APAC, particularly China, South Korea and Japan, will drive the global virtual reality market through until the next decade of 2030, according to a new report from GlobalData.
GlobalData's Market Opportunity Forecasts Model on VR reveals that the global VR market revenue is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13% from an estimated US$7bn in 2018 to US$28bn in 2030.
Currently, VR software accounts for two-thirds of the total VR market revenue globally, with the remainder coming from hardware sales.
Games account for the majority of software revenue (68% in 2018), with enterprise software contributing a further 30% and non-gaming consumer software about 2%.
Despite these technologies being in the nascent stages of evolution and adoption in APAC, a significant rise in their uptake is expected, especially around the market growth for non-gaming and enterprise software for VR.
As enterprises in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region are keen on embracing emerging technologies like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), the region is set to drive the global VR market between 2018 and 2030, says GlobalData.
Global lead ICT analyst Sunil Kumar Verma says, "VR adoption has so far been relatively low in APAC compared to developed markets like the US. However, the region is bound to witness strong adoption trend in future, aided by high-speed 5G network deployment. The burgeoning ecosystem of connected devices, which is estimated to grow further, and ample government support will drive the VR adoption in the region.
There are have been various government driven initiatives in recent years and months which are expected to contribute to the growth of these technologies over the next decade, Verma says.
China has announced several measures to facilitate the growth of VR industry. For instance, Shenzhen Municipal Government has partnered with HTC to create around US$1.45bn (RMB10bn) Shenzhen VR Investment fund and develop a new China VR Research Institute to boost the VR ecosystem in China.
Similarly, Guizhou Province initiated to build Beidouwan Virtual Reality Town, to develop its own VRAR ecosystem for the city. A VR intelligent Party School was also opened for the public in Beidouwan VR Town last year, and VR technology integrated in all of its exhibition halls.
Furthermore, the South Korean government has announced plans to invest US$363m in AR/VR marketplace over the next five years in 2016. The Government opened Korean Virtual Reality Augmented Reality Complex (KoVAC) at Seoul in 2017, following which six more such centers have come into existence, which the Government plans to increase to 20 by 2020.
In Japan, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has offered grants to the content creators using advanced content creation technologies (including VR) for the promotion of products, services and tourism in regional areas of the country.
Similar initiatives are underway in Australia, India and Malaysia, where local/provincial governments have partnered with AR/VR companies to promote educational and tourism activities.
Verma says, "While the government organisations typically lag in the adoption of emerging technologies, virtual technologies such as AR and VR provide a unique opportunity for them to transform the usage of existing data and provide improvised services around training, education and tourism through the use of these technologies.
