China’s VR Market Share Continues to Decline Due to Overall Disinterest in the Technology

A new report by Canalys unveils some interesting information regarding the VR ecosystem. Contrary to what people may think, US consumers represent the lion’s share of users. Japan is in the second place, whereas China is quickly sliding down the ranks. That is quite a troubling development, considering most of the hardware comes out of China. This disinterest in virtual reality only grows worse over time as well.

Chinese Consumers Don’t Care Much For VR

When new technology starts to gain market traction, experts automatically look to China. The country is known for quickly embracing innovative technologies as of late. When virtual reality was introduced, people expected China to show a growing interest in the technology. So far, this has not happened. In fact, Chinese consumers are growing increasingly indifferent to virtual reality throughout 2017.

Those are the findings of a new report issued by Canalys. According to the research, US consumers represent close to 40% of the global VR market. That is a rather surprising number. Moreover, seeing Japan as the second-largest country on this list raises a lot of eyebrows as well. China is still in the top 3 with 11%, but it seems the number will drop below double digits soon enough.

To put this into perspective, there is a growing disinterest in VR in China. The initial wave of excitement is wearing off. It is a bit unclear how this will affect the multiple Chinese VR hardware manufacturers active in the country, though. If they can’t eve cater to the domestic market, their international success will be rather short-lived as well. To make things more complicated, no one knows for sure what Chinese consumers expect from VR at this stage.

Despite the disinterest in China, VR headsets continue to do well in the country. The HTC Vive is very popular in China. It is believed the company will introduce their headsets in Chinese schools moving forward. If there is any truth to the rumor, things could get quite interesting for HTC in the future. It is evident some new approaches are required to increase the popularity of VR in China.

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