Recently, according to Taiwanese media reports, HTC veteran Zhou Yongming has resigned. HTC official confirmed this, saying that Zhou Yongming left HTC’s original position after becoming the chairman of Digital Domain in September 2015 and invited him to serve as an advisor.
Why did Zhou Yongming's resignation attract attention? Let’s first understand who Zhou Yongming is next.
Zhou Yongming joined HTC in 1997 and served as HTC CEO in 2004. He led HTC from a large OEM manufacturer to a world-renowned smartphone brand. He can be regarded as a hero of HTC's glorious period. Until 2015, he stepped down as CEO and served as Wang Xuehong . He focused on future-oriented product and technology research and development, and served as the leader of HTC Future Development Lab. However, in September last year, there were reports that Zhou Yongming joined the digital kingdom and speculated that it was entering virtual reality for HTC Vive, but now everything is different.
What kind of company is Digital Kingdom?
put the past deeds of the Digital Kingdom aside. Let’s take a look at their recent actions in the field of VR:
On June 22, it announced that it would form an alliance with Warner Music to jointly record singer Li Ronghao 360-degree panoramic concert and MV;
On June 21, it announced that it would work with Weiwhale VR and self-media network VS MEDIA to produce the first VR music video (MV) for the new song "Open" of Li Yuchun ;
on June 15, it announced that it would establish a branch Digital Domain Interactive, the department will focus on developing and producing virtual reality content for interactive and gaming;
5 On May 11, at the Youku Tudou Strategy Release Conference, the VR drama short film "Black Fairy Tale" cooperating with Youku and Yixing Media (Huang Xiaoming is the founder);
1 in January announced that it will cooperate with LeTV, and the live broadcast of panoramic sports events may be launched in the middle of the year;
015 will be " Kangxi" The last episode of is here to record the VR version of the program;
also exchanged $38.9% of the shares of Canadian virtual reality company IMV for US$38.9 million at the end of last year. Previously, the two jointly established IM360 company and shot 360-degree videos for MTV awards ceremony and other events;
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In the past six months, the digital kingdom has become increasingly exposed in China, and has also reached cooperation with companies such as LeTV and Youku that have entered the VR industry, which shows that they have extraordinary strength.
Generally speaking, Digital Kingdom was founded in 1992. It was first established by the big director James Cameron , and later acquired by director Michael Bay (who once filmed " Transformers ". In November 2011, Digital Kingdom was listed on , New York Stock Exchange, with a market value of US$300 million. However, due to excessive expansion, it filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
But during this period, the Digital Kingdom still had certain achievements, such as winning nine Oscars for works such as "Titanic", "Transformers", " Rejuvenation ".
Of course, the digital kingdom after bankruptcy is still very popular, and people from all walks of life bidding. Finally, in September 2012, China's Pony Pentium American company and Indian media giant "Reliance Media" jointly invested US$30.2 million to acquire the digital kingdom, each of which accounted for 70% and 30% of the shares. This news was a sensation in the film industry at that time.
But less than a year later, Hong Kong listed company Aoliang Group acquired 70% of the shares owned by Xiaoma Pentium for HK$392 million in March 2013, and then changed its name to Digital Kingdom Group Co., Ltd. in December. The current digital kingdom is headquartered in Hong Kong. As mentioned above, Digital Kingdom is well-known in visual effects. Some media reported that their works in 2016 mainly include "Fantasy Forest", "X-Man", "Independence Day", etc.
is the second thing that is the virtual human business. The most famous case is that at Jay Chou "2013 Motianlun World Tour", the Digital Kingdom reshaped Teresa Teng's virtual image and performed on the same stage with Jay Chou through time and space. The third is the virtual reality business. The company's executive director Qie An CEO recently said that he will strengthen the development of virtual people, virtual reality and visual effects businesses in China.
What will Zhou Yongming bring to the digital kingdom?
In fact, when Zhou Yongming was at HTC, he achieved a lot of achievements in products and technology. For example, when he launched HTC Hero in 2009, he won the MWC 2009 Best Mobile Phone Award. Not long ago, Digital Kingdom mentioned in an interview with the media that the addition of "Zhou Yongming, one of the founders of HTC", is a lot of advantages, especially "he has played a decisive role in improving our products and technologies."
also pointed out in the news released by Digital Kingdom in September that Zhou Yongming will focus on the company's strategy and technology research and development related fields in the future.
So the question is, why did HTC officially confirm it in 2016 when it was announced that it would join the Digital Kingdom in September 2015? If Zhou Yongming serves as HTC consultant, will the two parties have in-depth cooperation in VR content in the future?
