70 projects in 16 cities, this Chinese startup makes millions by selling real estate in VR
Selling real estate in VR wasn’t new. But it must be a surprise to many to learn a VR content generation startup has already been making millions out of the business right now in China.
VR model room provider ZHJ-Lab told AllChinaTech that they recently expanded their VR model room service VRoom to 16 Chinese cities and have completed 70 projects.
VRoom was launched in June 2015, and the company claims to use their own mature technology for designing VR model rooms.
The company has a clear vision about their VRoom project. They think that all home buyers should simply wear a VR helmet to follow up with their apartments that are being built, without having to wait for the completion of real model rooms and landscape demonstration areas.
“We take detailed elements in each VR scene seriously based on modeling technology. We also adopt human-computer interaction technology to give users an immersive experience,” Bai Zhiyi, co-founder and chief marketing officer of the company said on Wednesday.
Bai added that since the company was founded in July 2014 in southern China’s Xiamen, the company has focused on developing human-computer interaction technology and modeling technology, aiming to improve their products and standard procedures. Their strategy is to use VRoom to build their brand in the market.
According to Bai, the company has obtained a patent for human-computer interaction technology, and can produce a VRoom project within just 7 to 15 days. The cost of a VRoom is one tenth of the money needed for setting up a real model room.
VRoom can provide users with various house-inspecting choices. Home buyers can check different floors on lighting conditions. They can also take a close look at the indoor scenes in daytime or at night. More importantly, home buyers can interact with the indoor devices and scenes.
Last year, the company offered a VRoom project to Greenland Group, a leading Chinese real estate company, and contributed to Greenland’s project in Urumqi.
“VRoom is trying to serve the basic needs for most real estate enterprises,” said Bai.
He added that VRoom can reduce the construction cost of real model rooms, but it doesn’t mean VRoom will replace these real model rooms. Rather, it is more of a home inspecting tool. VRoom makes it possible for buyers to see what their houses will look like and make arrangements for room decoration and style.
A global trend right now is that most foreign VR companies use VR technology to apply movie and gaming content. The company aims to apply VR technology into business operations. With a staff of 30, the company is looking to make a difference.
“Besides serving as a professional VR model room provider, we also seek cooperation with traditional companies and make joint efforts to promote VR business operation,” said Bai.
Bai also said 2016 is a very important year for companies to take advantage of VR technology. He said that they will launch VR story, a series of story-telling films, by the end of March, and explore some VR content related to entertainment.
(Top photo from ZHJ-Lab)
Originally published at cn.allchinatech.com on March 21, 2016.
