(Yicai Global) May 11 -- The 14th China International Cultural Industry Fair, referred to as ICIF, has kicked off in Shenzhen, and this year's edition has laid more of an emphasis on digital products compared to previous years with multiple virtual reality firms putting their products on display.

"VR sales last year were five times of that in 2016," Pimax Technology Co. Sales Director Huang Bo told Yicai Global during his firm's exhibition. "I feel that the severe winter for VR (visual reality technology) industry has already passed.".

Established in 2015, Pimax Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. mainly engages in research and production of VR equipment covering various application scenarios.

China's VR industry is expected to surpass CNY10 billion (USD1.51 billion) in output value this year. The country is expected to be the biggest market globally for VR by 2021 with a compound annual growth rate of 80 percent over the next five years. 

Few people around Huang knew about VR when he started off with this new technology. In 2016, however, he sensed an influx of interest in the sector through the fact that people from various industries came to ask him whether their application scenarios could be integrated with his products.

"My relative wanted to have his house spruced up, and the decoration company showed him the decoration plan using VR. Many people now use VR instead of pictures to preview products if they want to buy apartments or cars," said Huang.

Huang accredited his company's survival during the industrial winter in 2017 and its fast development to its early presence in the VR industry as well as its competitive edge in technology accumulation.

Shanghai Chingmu Vision Technology Co., Ltd. is another VR producer and its computer vision products not only offer spatial orientation to VR systems, but also can integrate with other industries such as analyzing ball-positions for university athletes, said Liu Gang, one of Chingmu's staff members in charge of the company's booth at the fair.

VR customers represent a growing proportion of Chingmu's customer makeup. "The largest increases are in application-scenario fields such as education, film and television, and animation," Liu said. "Growth in the number of customers who play video games is still not obvious, probably because building a game exploration hall requires vast investment with slow returns, which is unattractive to investors."
Editor: William Clegg