- Mission “to be the creator of the largest holographic AR ecosystem in China”
WiMi Hologram Cloud, Inc, the largest holographic AR content producer in China, filed a preliminary prospectus with the SEC last week for an initial public offering (IPO) of American depositary shares, or ADSs, of up to $50,000,000. The Company intends to list the ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “WIMI.” Having developed powerful, leading-edge holographic AR technologies, the Company aspires “to be the creator of the largest holographic AR ecosystem in China.”
WIMI offers augmented reality (AR)-based holographic products and services centered on providing an innovative, immersive and interactive holographic augmented reality experience, for ‘Customers’ who have contracted with the Company to use its products and services subject to the contracts during the relevant period, and ‘End users’, who enthral in etherial AR experiences. WIMI business offerings consist primarily of (i) Holographic AR Advertising Services, which accounted for 80.5% of revenue in fiscal 2018, and (ii) Holographic AR Entertainment Products, which accounted for 19.5% of revenue in the same period.
Holographic AR Advertising Services
The Company’s holographic AR advertising software enables real or animated 3D images and objects to be inserted in film or video footage, seamlessly interacting with the characters and scenes of such footages. The online holographic AR advertising solution embeds holographic AR ads into films and videos that are hosted by leading online streaming platforms in China. Ads produced with WIMI holographic software generated more than 6.6 billion views during fiscal 2018, compared to 4.9 billion views during fiscal 2017, representing a year on year increase of 34.7%.
The Company had 121 customers during fiscal 2018, as compared to 97 customers during fiscal 2017, and the average revenue per customer was approximately RMB 1.5 million during the year, as compared to approximately RMB 1.4 million during 2017. Average revenue per customer is calculated by dividing the total AR advertising revenue by the number of customers, while the average revenue increase was due to the improvement in technologies where we could embed more contents in the advertisements. The duration of a typical AR advertising service contract is one year.
Image 1: Holographic Application Platform (https://bit.ly/2Nq7U7Y)
Through the Company’s proprietary image and video recognition technologies, its software enables users to analyze the underlying video footages at a pixel level to identify ad spaces that can be augmented by 3D objects. Advertisers and their agencies purchase these ad spaces through application programming interface, or APIs, integrated with our systems, specifying their target audience and budgets and typically providing the 3D models to be embedded in the videos. When the ad space is detected, and 3D objects are generated, the objects are embedded into the underlying streaming videos automatically on a batch-processing basis as determined by our software.
Holographic AR Entertainment Products
WIMI’s holographic AR entertainment products consist primarily of payment middleware software, game distribution platform and holographic mixed reality (‘MR’) software. Payment middleware is a software solution that connects mobile apps to payment channels, giving mobile app users convenient access to a wide range of online payment options. WIMI has cooperated with more than 55 app developers; its payment middleware has been embedded in over 1,100 mobile apps, many featuring AR functionality, which were marketed by over 300 customers in 2018.
The Company also provides payment middleware which streamlines the often time-consuming mobile payment process with a proprietary in-app payment infrastructure that allows micropayments to be made or received through an efficient, secure system without any interface redirection. Such mobile payment middleware enables app developers to store users’ payment credentials in a trusted and safe environment and eases the user burden of repeatedly entering and authenticating payment information for each transaction.
Image 2: https://bit.ly/2KShsXc
WIMI’s payment middleware can be fully integrated with various mobile apps, including live streaming, gaming, selfie, photo editing, and video-sharing, and especially those employing AR technologies. The payment middleware supports substantially all major online payment channels in China, and it is also compatible with the mainstream mobile operating systems.
About WiMi Hologram
WiMi Hologram Cloud, Inc. began commercial operations in May 2015 through Beijing WiMi Hologram Cloud Software Co., Ltd., or Beijing WiMi. WiMi Cayman was incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands as the offshore holding company in August 2018 to facilitate offshore financing. In Sept. 2018, WiMi Hologram Cloud Limited, or WiMi HK, a wholly-owned Hong Kong subsidiary, was established.
WiMi HK established a wholly-owned PRC subsidiary, Beijing Hologram WiMi Cloud Internet Technology Co., Ltd., or Hologram WiMi, or WiMi WFOE in the Company’s SEC prospectus. Substantially all of WIMI’s users and business operations are located in the PRC. Tthe Company does not have plans for any significant overseas expansion, as its primary focus remains the PRC hologram market, with its tremendous growth potential and attractive monetization opportunities. http://en.wimiar.com
Contact: Insight Data Talking Institute, Mr Ronald Sims, +44 20 7698 1963, morningstar.editors@gmail.com, www.insightdatatalking.com
Source: U.S. SEC – FORM F-1, WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc., as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 27, 2019.
