Ayden Ye shows his vision for popular VR content platform VeeR

For sure you have already heard about the video platform VeeR, one of the most popular platform for VR content creators. I’ve also already reviewed it more than year ago, definining it as an ambitious project under construction.

A lot of time has passed by and VeeR has improved a lot. That’s why I was really pleased to have the opportunity of interviewing its CEO, Ayden Ye, about his company and Virtual Reality in general. Keep reading and discover what he has to say us.

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Hello Ayden, present yourself to my readers!

Hey Tony, this is Ayden, co-founder and CEO from VeeR VR, the global VR content platform.

Prior to VeeR, I worked for Sierra Ventures, a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley and led the Chinese investment in Ximalaya.FM (largest audio content platform in China at 6 billion dollar valuation) and Social Touch (largest social media SaaS company in China) which both successfully exited. In 2016, after researching from over 1,000 VR companies globally, I decided to come back to China to co-found VeeR VR.

VeeR is well known in the VR ecosystem (and I also reviewed it on my blog), but explain what it is for the few people that don’t know it yet

Thanks for reviewing us previously. VeeR is a global VR content platform launched in October 2016.

In the past 2 years, VeeR has attracted over 50K content creators from all over the world, including Warner Brothers, Baobab Studio, Pinta Studio, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation etc, to share their amazing works with the global audience from 180+ countries.

Why is VeeR different from other popular online video services like Youtube and Vimeo?

VeeR is a dedicated platform for VR content. We are also the first content platform to support multi-format content, including VR video, VR photo, and VR experience.

What are the features of VeeR you are most proud of?

In VeeR, we are aiming to empower content creators to create and share the next generation of media.

On one hand, they are able to distribute their content cross platforms (including Oculus Go, Oculus Rift, Gear VR, Steam VR, HTC Vive, MIVR, Android, iOS etc) just with one single click on VeeR; on the other hand, we have developed the free web-based interactive experience creation tool VeeR Experience back in August 2018. The tool lowers the barriers of creating high-quality interactive content: creators don’t need to deal with complicated tools like Unity, they can simply create interactive content drag and drop. It is also the first free tool that allows creators to edit with VR video layers.

What are the most recent updates to VeeR?

We have been working to optimize the user experience in VR, and last Friday, The VeeR VR App (HMD Version) was just been upgraded with:

• Personalized content recommendation to cater different interests;
• Simplified information architecture for better content exploration and navigation.

What is your vision for the future of this platform?

Become THE VR experience platform where everyone can create and share the next generation of media.

What is the most popular content on your platform?

There is a wide range of content varieties on VeeR, and almost everyone can discover the content they like here.

Speaking of the most popular content, we have to admit that there are few genres that have quite outstanding performance compared with the others. The top 5s are premium films, sports, beauty, travel, Sci-Fi.

What advice would you give to people creating VR videos?

Unlike the traditional video format, VR content is still new to a lot of creators. It is really important to identify and create content that is truly VR friendly, and engaging.

What advice would you give to wannabe VR entrepreneurs?

Solve existing pain points and create real value. Be focus and keep pushing the boundaries.

Is VR already profitable?

VR is still at its early stage of monetization. However, we do observe the potential business opportunity in ToB field.

What are the differences between VR in China and in the rest of the world?

The VR market size in China is pretty big compared to the rest of the world. The severe competition drives rapid innovation. Chinese VR companies have to fall fast and learn fast to survive.

Speaking of the VR content in China, it is catching up the global standard. There are more creators working on ToB field in China, and the overall content quality is still not comparable to what it is in US or Europe, but it is improving.

You are very active on Quora. Why? What advantages is it giving to you?

There are a lot of people curious about virtual reality in Quora, and we consider it a precious channel to communicate and share what we have learned along the way.

It goes well and we are excited to see people from different backgrounds being interested in this technology and wanting to know more about how it is going to be adopted into their field. I hope there will be more VR experts joining us to educate the market together.

How do you envision the future of VR?

The VR market has been climbing up in 2018, especially with the shipment of the Oculus Go.

Firstly, standalone devices are going to become mainstream. Secondly, the 5G network is going to make a revolution in the VR industry. The future of VR is bright, but companies have to really focus on their product before next wave.

Anything else you would like to add?

In the past few months, we have been working closely with the top VR creators to have their content available for the global audience. We are expecting more world-class premium content available on VeeR very soon, stay tuned!

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A content sharing platform that is only focused on VR is for sure an interesting project. VeeR has to compete with giants like Youtube in the west and YouKu in China for what concerns video content sharing and so it will have to fight hard to survive. I think that at the moment they are doing a good job in general.

In the interview I found particularly interesting the reference to the fact that now VR is still at early stage of monetization, so if you want that your VR company will survive in this difficult moment, you have to be sure that your product really serves a real need and then stay really focused and learn and evolve fast. Commitment is the key.

It was also interesting the reference to the fact that while Chinese VR market is big and is growing fast, its content quality is still below the level that we have in the West. But things in China move fast, so the quality of content is improving there as well.

Before I leave, I want to tell you about a nice initiative that VeeR is starting (and that my newsletter subscribers already know about).

VeeR is launching a series of Christmas initiatives for this Christmas, starting from December, 17th and ending at December, 26th. There is also a cool lottery that is about to start: people going to the page https://goo.gl/dnBALT and sharing it on social media will get free access to VeeR premium content Extravaganza and will enter a lucky draw to win 5 Oculus Go headsets and other cool prizes! The lottery will start soon, so check out that page these days!

At the same time, VeeR has decided to give a special opportunity to you, my readers! Apart from the above lottery, that is another one dedicated to you all that read my articles: if you register to VeeR and then send me the e-mail address you used to register to VeeR (via e-mail, social media, or whatever other contact mean), you could have 1 month of free premium content on VeeR. 10 free premium passes are available for my community people only and the “winners” will be selected on 26th, the same day that VeeR will extract all the prizes of the lottery. Of course, you can bribe me to be one of the lucky selected 10 people 😀 😀 😀

(Just to be clear: I have no stakes in VeeR and this is not a sponsored post, I’m just talking about this opportunity because it can benefit you 🙂 I love you, my readers!)

(Header image by VeeR)