Digital Kingdom CEO and Executive Director Mr. Xie An introduced the management team
China News Service, July 7. On July 5, the International Visual Effects and Virtual Reality Company Digital Kingdom announced its latest personnel appointments. Former Youku President Wei Ming announced his appointment as Executive Director, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Greater China. John Lagerling, Vice President of Facebook's Mobile and Product Cooperation Business Development, was appointed as Independent Non-Executive Director of Digital Kingdom , Executive Director of China CITIC Co., Ltd. Pu Jian , and SoftBank China Capital Management Partner Song Anlan has served as Non-Executive Director of Digital Kingdom. The development strategy of the Greater China region of the new ecosystem of "hardware + content + platform" in the Digital Kingdom was also announced simultaneously. At the meeting, Digital Kingdom CEO Xie An made his debut with his new management team, reviewing the transformation of Digital Kingdom from a traditional special effects company to a technological pioneer to a transformation path.
Since officially entering the Greater China market in 2016, Digital Kingdom has been committed to the comprehensive layout of "technology + entertainment", and simultaneously carrying out three major businesses: virtual reality (VR), virtual human and visual special effects. In the past year, Digital Kingdom has successively launched projects such as Faye Wong's "Fantasy Music" concert VR live broadcast, virtual Teresa Teng's music fantasy show, combining traditional entertainment forms with cutting-edge technologies such as VR and virtual people, and all received good responses. The joining of former Youku executives and Facebook executives is regarded as another important breakthrough in the digital kingdom's "technology + entertainment" layout.
"Technology + Entertainment" strategy, talent layout takes the lead
Digital Kingdom has transformed from traditional special effects business to "Technology + Entertainment" strategy, and has made top talents in many fields. With the promotion of Xie An, industry leaders who have joined the digital kingdom in recent years have now included: HTC founder Zhou Yongming, former Youku president Wei Ming, Facebook's vice president of mobile phone and product cooperation business development, Song Anlan, executive director of China CITIC Co., Ltd., SoftBank China Capital Management Partner, as well as famous producer Wang Weizhong, famous artist Nicholas Tse, etc., spanning all walks of technology, the Internet, finance, and entertainment.
's talent and resource reserves for the "technology + entertainment" strategy have made the Digital Kingdom achieve outstanding results. For example, in the VR live broadcast of Faye Wong's "Fantasy Music" concert, it created the VR paid business model for the first time. In April 2017, it released the industry's first end-to-end combination solution for virtual reality content, and launched a series of VR original content and live broadcast cooperation.
Xie An said: "Digital Kingdom has stood in Hollywood for 24 years. In recent years, through the leadership and efforts of our management and team, we have successfully transformed the traditional visual effects company into an international enterprise leading the industry. Using our unique visual effects and virtual reality technology, we have successfully opened up the global market, especially in Greater China. Today we are honored that many international elites have joined the board of directors of Digital Kingdom. With their international vision and resources, we will lead the Digital Kingdom to go higher and farther." After
, the potential of VR was released
1, the new Digital Kingdom Greater China CEO Wei Ming, in addition to being the president of Youku, also served as partner of VR fund of Integrated Group and general manager of digital entertainment business department of Alibaba Group. It is worth noting that since the popularity of the "first year of VR" in 2016, Alibaba and Youku have both started VR content and platform layout. Compared with these two companies, Digital Kingdom, which comes from Hollywood special effects, has the special effects asset advantages accumulated over 24 years, which can be conveniently used for VR production; and Digital Kingdom previously acquired IMV, a Canadian company with 360-degree shooting technology, thereby winning more hardware advantages; coupled with the digital entertainment-related qualifications accumulated by Wei Ming in Youku and Alibaba, this time, will undoubtedly help Digital Kingdom take the lead in VR business.
, and John Lagerling, an independent non-executive director of Digital Kingdom and vice president of Facebook's mobile and product cooperation business development, has always been committed to promoting VR platforms, especially VR social networking. Facebook's social platform Spaces, launched in April this year, has been widely praised and uses cartoon styling to simulate character interactions.Digital Kingdom also announced its independently developed Digital Avatar (digital stand-alone) technology, which has achieved a technological breakthrough in real-time capture and transmission of expressions for the first time, allowing consumers to create their own customized digital stand-alone in the virtual world with just one consumer-grade camera. In the future, Digital Avatar (digital stand-alone) will be expected to bring groundbreaking changes to virtual social interaction.
capital support to break the myth of VR cold winter
In this personnel appointment, Pu Jian, executive director, deputy general manager and member of the executive committee of China CITIC Co., Ltd., and Song Anlan, managing partner of SoftBank China Capital, also announced that he would serve as non-executive director of Digital Kingdom, bringing higher-quality international resources to Digital Kingdom, while also demonstrating the confidence of the capital market in the VR industry. According to CB Insights data, in the first quarter of 2017, the volume of AR/VR investment transactions exceeded 80, a year-on-year increase of 60%; and from the beginning of the second half of 2017, the Digital Kingdom received strong support from investors. At this point, the once rampant "VR Winter Theory" can come to an end.
Digital Kingdom’s cooperation with CITIC and SoftBank China has been launched since last year. In September 2016, Digital Kingdom announced that the company introduced CITIC and SoftBank China as strategic investors by acquiring convertible notes and subscribing to new shares. In December of the same year, Digital Kingdom was included in the list of the first target stocks for the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect with its stable and excellent market performance and good development expectations for virtual reality and special effects businesses.
It is worth mentioning that SoftBank China's most well-known investment projects include Alibaba. Nowadays, Alibaba, which started with e-commerce, and the digital kingdom of the old special effects company, have entered VR one after another, and SoftBank's VR investment ecosystem is gradually becoming clear. Digital Kingdom also announced at this press conference that the fourth generation of VR cameras will be released at the end of 2017, and announced the "VR Youth Director Support Plan", the "VR Master Director Plan", and the establishment of VR experience rooms and VR theaters, carry out more star concerts and VR live broadcasts, and use 5G network to expand the European market. A more complete VR ecosystem is about to be launched, and a high-quality answer sheet has been submitted for investors.
