1. AR technology is growing non-stop in Asia
In this Asia tech race with many competitors such as China, Japan, India, Korea, Viet Nam, etc., there are different ways to rise above once you dip your toe in. It is escalated that Asia-Pacific AR market will rocket with remarkable CAGR speed at 39,4% during forecast period.
AR technology is widely applied in many countries, for examples: 3D visualization and game developing in Japan, retailing in China, e-commerce and Viet Nam, architecture and entertainment in Korea, even automotive production, etc. However, the most popular application of AR in Asia is marketing and advertising via smartphones. It is forecasted that this market will spike up at 135% CAGR speed in the next 5 years.
The need for AR technology in certain industry such as entertainment, retailing and military is growing more and more, evoking businesses to expand. Traditional advertising and digital marketing agencies need to be prepared for this change. Marketers are considering the possibilities of using AR technology in their next campaigns to attract new customers as well as existing ones.
The AR market faced a big shift when some of the biggest companies moved their pawns.
Apple planning to launch their first AR ear buds in 2022 is leaving big impact on the Asia market. Recently in wearable technology field, Facebook presented AR wristband on 18 March, 2021.
The AR goggles market is speeding up now that companies no longer consider AR goggles to be industrial goods or problem-solving tools. Consumers don’t see AR tech integrated glasses are necessity or fashion items. Consumers’ satisfaction can be hard to achieve. But businesses are trying to build a marketing ecosystem, taking proper steps to approach customers in order to secure the future development for AR glasses.
Meanwhile in Japan, Nintendo partnered with Niantic – creator of Pokemon Go phenomenon – to develop AR mobile game.
It is clear that every country has their different strategies in the same battlefield, 2021 is going to be the year of AR tech.
2. What are the predictions for AR technology in 2021?
“The risk of traveling and the experience from the first months of the COVID-19 outbreak will drive demand in 2021 for proactive solutions that increase employee and business efficiency and ensure employee safety,” explains Eric Abbruzzese, AR/VR Research Director at ABI Research. AR software/platform providers will continue to update and expand their offerings, including more features and new strategic collaborations to support, automate, and simplify large-scale deployments while providing more data and analytics tools for proactive decisions. Enterprise AR hardware will not shift dramatically, as current offerings well serve value use cases. However, the consumer hardware market will be more dynamic. “2021 will be an important one for AR consumer hardware. nReal will ship its first headsets to consumers, while Mad Gaze will also look to expand. Also, Facebook is expected to roll out its AR smart glasses out of its Reality Labs initiative; Google may join as well after the acquisition of North, and with pressure from Facebook and others.
The total AR market, including content and usage on mobile devices, will be strong. Media & entertainment and retail & commerce will lead in terms of growth and adoption rates due to the establishment of “at home entertainment” and the rise of online shopping.
(From ABI Research)
3. Popular industries that are implementing AR technology in Asia
A. Entertainment
In Korea, AR filter has become a famous marketing tool for idols to expand the fandom. Entertainment companies have been taking advantage of this trend to create Instagram AR filters for the fans to have fun with.
At Beyond Live Concert, SM Entertainment utilized SK Telecom’s AR technology and brought their online concert to a whole new level. During the performance of Super Junior, the fans got shocked at the giant virtual reproduction of the member Choi Siwon crawling out of the backdrop. What’s even more shocking is that “he” can move around and talk in the same manner as humans do.
AR online concert
On June 2020, telecommunications provider LG U+ added a new feature to the app U+AR called “ARtist”, which allows users to watch AR concert via mobile phone. With ARtist, users can watch artists perform while sitting, standing or even moving around and they can see the artists from every aspect.
B. E-commerce
AR technology in ecommerce will potentially improve customers’ experience with online shopping. Many stores are introduced to AR Filters and AR Advertising and find that they are helpful in enhancing customers’ trust and boosting their decision making process.
AR technology can generate interactions from Playable Ads, Swipe Up Games to add more excitement to online shopping. With the help of AR, customer get product previews which can help them choose the right product for them.
