FXG Technology, Capturing Reality and Creating Realities

Hangzhou FXG Technology Co., Ltd. is a company that develops  immersive content and technology. Tts mission is creating high quality content and connecting quality international VR content with Chinese consumers. As the world’s leading company that provides the complete deep immersive video software and hardware technology and solutions, VFG co-organized the  Future of Immersive Video Conference with Hangzhou VR Center to discuss the future of VR development.

Today, we will talk with Mr. Nikk Mitchell, the founder of VFG about the development of VR.

CGGE: Can you tell us something about your company and what’s the main business?

FXG is an art-tech company focused on the development of VR production technology and the creation of Vcontent. We develop our own 360 VR camera, have our own volumetric video research lab/film studio, and create all kinds of unique content using our new technology.

CGGE: How about your personal experience in the digital media industry? Why do you chose Hangzhou to start business ?

I have been in VR for 8 years. Running different businesses and helping other businesses to understand this new industry. I choose Hangzhou because it’s a not only a great place to run a start up, it’s also a great place to live.

CGGE: For Chinese digital media industry, due to your expediences in China these year, what’s your opinions? Compared to that in US or Europe, what’s the difference in, like VR or games in China?

In the past China has had big problems with IP protection. So content industries locally have suffered greatly. Hardware is not as easy to copy so most VR companies that have succeeded in China have been making hardware like VR headsets or like my company creating VR cameras. The only successful VR content companies have been creating content for the international market. Now the government is putting more energy on protecting IP and you can see it beginning to change. In the future their will be a very strong local content market with many local companies creating content for it, but it will take many years for this market to grow.

CGGE: Is the commercial application in VR business mature now no matter in China or world market? Or it’s still under development? What’s the direction for its future?

Now the main VR markets are business facing as there are not enough consumers with VR headsets. So most VR companies have to create for the corporate market to survive. This has caused a lot of VR companies to come up with very creative solutions to old business challenges. For example my company works with GE in America and China State Grid in China using VR film for internal training. This solution allows them to have a high quality training experience for a very affordable cost. GE has recorded hundreds of hours of training content with our content and they claim with VR now they save 10 000 USD per employee per certification. While this is a growing market that will still take a few years to become standard it has already shown great value to corporations world wide.

CGGE: During this period, China are in very difficulty time that many businesses fails to start or operate normally because of epidemic of novel coronavirus pneumonia. So what’s your measure to get the company back to the track? What’s your future plan after the epidemic?

The epidemic has caused huge challenges for almost every industry in China. For all of February my entire team was working at home. We set up remote control for all our office desktops so that my video production team could access our work stations and use our render servers. Unfortunate my sales team could not continue as normal. Not only can they not visit any clients, many of our old clients were also not bad at work. On top of this, when there is a recession most companies are trying to cut back, and are not interested in new opportunities which they see as new risks in a time with enough risk. One of our sources of revenue was creating VR promotional films for companies. At a time like this that is nearly an impossible sell. Why spend extra money on anything that you don’t 100% need when you are worried about survival?

So now we are focusing on our other solutions like VR training, that can offer savings to a company, increasing chances of survival.

We are also looking for other ways to adapt our services to help companies deal with this situation. For example we develop VR live streaming technology. At a time when face to face meetings are potentially a life threatening risk, this kind of meeting technology can allow companies to meet and operative while staying safe.

The Chinese economy, and the world economy, have only begun to feel the effects of this epidemic. But as we have seen in the past, no matter how bad things get they will eventually get worse. We have been contacted by banks in Hangzhou that have set up funds offering loans to companies affected to help them survive until it gets better. While we are fine without, it is good to know that there is a safety net.

CGGE: Do you have any suggestion to those foreigners who want to work in China or open business here?

It’s not easy, but it’s worth it! Take as much time to understand the culture here as you do the market. Things work differently in China, so you will need to adapt to have success in this market, and with any new Chinese partners.

Also it’s always good to have a helping hand. FXG has worked with over 30 international companies on their expansion into China, maybe we can help you too.

Cheers!

By:CGGE Editor