The launch of Apple’s new Vision Pro augmented reality (AR) headset has fueled hopes that the nascent market can go mainstream. In China, excitement around the AR market has waxed and waned: But one company — Rokid — has already found a niche in providing AR products to some of the country’s biggest state-owned companies and automakers.

This week, The Wire profiles Rokid, whose official name is Hangzhou Lingban Technology Co., Ltd, and finds out whether enterprise AR solutions have a brighter future than household entertainment products in the world’s second-largest economy.

A NEW REALITY

Rokid was founded in 2014 in Hangzhou, at a time when several global tech companies were showing interest in popularizing smart glasses, which can be used to watch movies, play games and perform other tasks normally done in front of a computer screen. The Google Glass was released the previous year, while Facebook acquired virtual reality company Oculus VR shortly after. Neither the Google Glass headset nor the Oculus Rift gaming system achieved mainstream popularity, however.

Rokid’s founder, Zhu Mingming, originally joined Alibaba in 2010 after the tech giant acquired the first tech company he founded, Mengma Technology, which focused on mobile operating systems. Predicting that AI would develop rapidly, Zhu left Alibaba and founded his second company, Rokid, according to an interview he gave to one of its earliest investors, IDG Capital.

Chinese media have dubbed Zhu — who earned a doctorate from UC Berkeley in California — the ‘Silicon Valley Genius’. Rokid has received multiple awards at the largest U.S. consumer technology conference, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), since it launched its first products in 2016. Other firms that have since invested in Rokid include the Singapore government’s investment arm Temasek Holdings, Credit Suisse and Vision Plus Capital, according to market research firm EqualOcean.

The Chinese government identified augmented reality as one of seven industries key to the development of a digital economy in its 14th Five-Year Plan, published in 2021. Against this backdrop, other Chinese tech startups like Xreal and INMO have also sought to popularize wearable AR devices.

Chinese manufacturers, such as Luxshare Precision Industry and Shenzhen Desay Battery Technology, are already dominant in supplying some of the components crucial to these devices, such as optical displays and batteries. But they lag the likes of Qualcomm on the integrated chip circuits, known as system-on-chip (SoC), that power AR headsets, according to market research firm Counterpoint Research.

Industry analysts add that while Chinese AR companies may be able to deliver on hardware, it’s important to have a rich library of games and movies to help sell the products to consumers.

“If you ask people, ‘what is augmented reality?’ not many people would be able to say what it is,” says Eloi Gerard, founder and CEO of END Entertainment, an AR marketing strategy firm. “But if you ask them, ‘what is Pokémon Go?’ they would probably describe what augmented reality is very well. But they don’t talk about the device that they’re using to play Pokémon Go.”

Creating a content ecosystem that would complement AR hardware is difficult in China, says Gerard, because of the lack of content-creating studios in the country and the regulatory hurdles that come with licensing video games there.

A NEW BUSINESS REALITY

Mindful of these hurdles, Rokid has prioritized business users over individual consumers. The company touts its products as providing “robust enterprise solutions for development communities”, with the potential to make an impact across a broad range of industries. These solutions include fitting smart glasses with infrared sensors and inspection cameras for workers in industrial settings. 

One of the best known uses of Rokid’s products came in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when security guards at a local park in Hangzhou used thermal imaging on Rokid glasses to measure visitors’ body temperatures.

“If you look at AR HMD (head-mounted display) adoption, the growth maturity and the interest in stuff is actually happening in enterprise,” says Tuong Nguyen, director analyst at market research and consulting firm Gartner.

“A lot of organizations out there have already adopted these wearable devices, primarily for their frontline workers in heavy industries and capital-intensive industries to help do their jobs,” adds Nguyen.

Rokid’s X-Craft hard hat in action. Source: Rokid

Read the below graphic to learn more about some of the enterprise users of Rokid’s AR products, including the X-Craft hard hat that the company says is the world’s first explosive-proof AR device.

In a sign of how political priorities are shaping China’s AR industry, Rokid’s latest funding round in January, totalling 500 million renminbi ($70 million), was led by the Hefei city government in Anhui province, an area known as a hub for technology companies. In return for the funding, Rokid agreed to set up an industrial metaverse headquarters, ecosystem hub and research and development center in the city, according to state-run Hefei Daily.

Rokid also announced a partnership this month with Hainan Airlines, offering what the former called the world’s first in-flight AR experience. Rokid AR glasses, pre-loaded with movies, are being offered on more than twenty Hainan Airlines flights between February and March, with plans to expand the rollout further, the company said. 

Check out the graphic below for a side-by-side comparison of the Apple Vision Pro with some of the leading AR glasses from Rokid and Xreal. While Apple aims for the Vision Pro’s functionality to rival that of your laptop or tablet, Rokid’s consumer products are primarily focused on gaming and watching movies, making the latter more lightweight and affordable.

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