WIMI Hologram’s IPO prospectus for the US capital markets, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on June 27, makes clear the company’s position on technology. Since its inception, WIMI has devoted most of its research and development resources to software development. Its software engineering team is responsible for building the company-wide software platform, supporting the integration of its products and applications within its cloud infrastructure, and producing WIMI’s holographic AR-related and MR-related software and solutions, licensed to its entertainment industry customers.
WIMI has developed an innovative business model with fundamental strengths that positions it for continued leadership. It is the leading holographic augmented reality (AR) application platform in China, in terms of total revenue in 2018, according to Frost & Sullivan, and has built the most comprehensive and diversified holographic AR content library among all holographic AR solution providers in China. Its mission is to be the creator of the largest holographic AR ecosystem in China.
Content Production
Set out in the Company’s prospectus, WIMI’s leading holographic AR content production capabilities are built around image acquisition, object recognition, automated image process, and computer vision technologies. It’s engineering team and visualization design team work closely to consistently advance such visualization-related technologies and harness them to design and produce innovative holographic AR contents. Through real-time computer vision algorithms which provide an accurate pose estimation, scene recognition and tracking can be performed within seconds. Such cutting-edge algorithms also allow WIMI to perform visualization of photorealistic high-resolution renderings of products on a pixel basis.
While most peer companies may identify and capture 40 to 50 blocks of image data within a specific space unit, WIMI can collect 500 to 550 blocks, according to Frost & Sullivan. WIMI’s speed of image processing is 80% faster than the industry average, leading to improved operational efficiency. During scene reconstruction, WIMI’s automated image processing tools can perform noise cleaning and feature enhancement on the image it initially captured, enabling them to create best-in-class holographic AR designs with an industry-leading simulation degree.
Content Library
WIMI has built a comprehensive holographic AR content library as compared with peers in China. The formats of its holographic AR contents range from 3D models to holographic short videos. As of December 31, 2018, WIMI owned 4,654 ready-to-use AR holographic contents that were available to be adapted to its holographic AR products and solutions covering a wide category, including animals, cartoon characters, vehicles and foods. Among them, 2,961 proprietary and licensed intellectual properties (“IP”) were for education scenarios, 851 for tourism, 739 for arts and entertainment and 103 for popular science. In addition, the Company’s content library is also enriched by copyrighted contents it has licensed from third parties. It cooperates with various content owners, including brands, film producers and talent agencies, to adapt high-quality, popular IPs into holographic AR formats.
WIMI believe that the next-generation cloud delivery technology provides the flexibility and scalability necessary for holographic AR experience. Cloud technology is of high importance to build its comprehensive holographic AR ecosystem. It has developed its cloud architecture to work effectively in a flexible cloud environment that has a high degree of elasticity. Meanwhile, benefiting from its cloud storage and connecting capabilities, users of our integrated holographic AR software are able to access its large-size holographic AR content library on their native devices.
Big Data Capability
WIMI has developed advanced data analytics capabilities to derive actionable insights from the large amounts of data it collected from products and third-party sources. Currently, it has infiltrated a solid end-user base of approximately 350 million from which we are able to collect raw data. The Company’s processing capabilities enable it to manage extremely large volumes of data and deliver real-time analysis at scale, making it possible to continue to improve and innovate its products and services. It’s data mining and user behavioral data analytics technologies allow it to build and segment context-rich user profiles and apply such analysis in numerous applications. For instance, it has created over 2,000 user tags by analyzing user data collected through holographic AR advertising services. WIMI is also in the process of developing ads performance tracking and evaluation tools.
WIMI has developed a professional media player specifically designed for holographic AR contents. It has built-in a comprehensive set of setting parameters and editing tools used for holographic AR content playback and allows end-users to playback complex high-fidelity simulations quickly and cost-effectively. End-users are able to adjust the contrast, saturation and vibrancy of the displayed holographic AR content and create their own custom visual effect.
Experienced Management Team and Market Potential Across the Holographic AR Value Chain
Finally, WIMI benefits significantly from the experience of its founder and senior management team, who have been successfully riding the growth wave in China’s booming holographic AR industry. This management team becomes the subject of the next article in this series. As holography and AR continue to proliferate, China’s holographic AR market is fast-growing and evolving. According to Frost & Sullivan, the total market size of China’s holographic AR industry in terms of total revenues is expected to grow from RMB 3.6 billion in 2017 to RMB 454.8 billion in 2025.
Source: U.S. SEC – FORM F-1, WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc., Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), June 27, 2019.
Contact: Insight Data Institute, Mr Ronald Sims, +44 2076981963, morningstar.editors@gmail.com, www.insightdatatalking.com.
