As the head of Huatai Securities Co.Ltd(601688) TMT research group and chief analyst of technology and electronics, Huang Leping’s rich experience makes him very forward-looking in the industry. He has worked in Nokia, Nomura Securities, China International Capital Corporation Limited(601995) and many other companies. Recently, Huang Leping accepted an exclusive interview with Shanghai Securities News to analyze the industrial prospect of the concept of “meta universe”.
What industrial chains does metauniverse involve?
“metauniverse is the next stop of the Internet. We think this is a more accurate positioning of the metauniverse.” Huang Leping said that the past decade has been the decade of the development of mobile Internet. Mobile Internet mainly includes 4G, smart phones and smart phone based applications. At present, the next generation Internet represented by “meta universe” is still in the early stage of development.
“Compared with the mobile Internet, we believe that at present, the metauniverse contains four core technologies in the technical layer.” Huang Leping believes that they are: intelligent hardware such as AR / VR, communication technologies such as 5g and cloud computing, digital currency technology based on blockchain, and artificial intelligence technologies such as natural language processing and image recognition.
At the same time, Huang Leping believes that in addition to the commonalities of the Internet, There may also be two significant features: “First, we may have an independent economic system: through the meta universe, we can buy digital assets such as clothes and shoes. Second, the meta universe may be a virtual world born out of the real world, parallel and interactive with the real world. You may have an independent identity and social relationship with the real society in this society. You can use AR / V anytime and anywhere R hardware access to this society. ”
From the perspective of the industrial chain, Huang Leping believes that the logic of the upstream and downstream of the whole industrial chain has gradually become clear. The meta universe mainly includes infrastructure, intelligent hardware, software platform and content services. However, the degree of development of relevant industries outside China is also different.
Huang Leping believes that the gap between China and international giants is the smallest in the field of intelligent hardware. In the chip field, it is still a foreign monopoly, the direction of infrastructure, blockchain, network and cloud technology are still in the initial stage. From the perspective of software, engine companies unity and epic are receiving great attention. In the future, Chinese international giants still have a lot of room for development in rendering, interaction, AI algorithm and other technologies.
In addition, on the content server side, Facebook, that is, meta, and valve steam have done very early, with a complete ecosystem including the app store. In Chinese enterprises, big factories such as byte and Tencent have just started. In addition to games in the future, application scenarios may continue to expand.
what is the industry vision and breakthrough?
Does the gradual formation of the industrial chain mean that the era of “meta universe” is coming? Huang Leping pointed out that at present, the overall development of relevant industries is still not mature enough.
“The most intuitive thing is that there is still a big gap between the hardware and the ideal state. At present, the commercial hardware is VR and other integrated head mounted display devices, which weigh more than 500 grams. In the future, head mounted devices will continue to be lightweight, and we will gradually see 200-300g or even as thin as glasses. This requires the revolution of display, battery, communication and other technologies. In terms of software, at present, it includes human-computer interaction There is still a big gap in technology and the authenticity of graphics rendering. ”
Moreover, Huang Leping believes that the overall model of the meta universe in the current market still needs to be further explored. “In addition to technical considerations, I think we need to think about the application and content of the meta universe, and even some people’s values, daily living habits, moral concepts and so on.” To sum up, Huang Leping believes that it will take time for the meta cosmic world to really mature.
“Of course, I think the game may be the first to achieve a breakthrough. At present, there have been some 3A level game masterpieces, which provide users with a good experience.” According to Huang Leping, at present, the game may be the first scene to land in metauniverse. In addition, in terms of industrial application, AR / VR also has great application space in the fields of Vocational and technical training, emergency rescue drill and so on.
how do you view relevant investment opportunities?
Since October, the A-share market has set off an upsurge of hyping the concept of “meta universe”. How should investors view the investment opportunities related to meta universe?
“I think the development of the industry in the current situation, the concept of the two level market yuan universe is definitely there is a relatively big bubble.” And this bubble also has certain difference in Huang Leping’s view. “In specific terms, Hard Suits Inc has relatively definite support for shipments, which is relatively understandable. The bubble of content start-ups is relatively large.”
In fact, from the comparison between the primary market and the secondary market, different investors have obvious differences in the direction of metauniverse investment, “because at present, the concept of metauniverse is still relatively vague, so more investment in the primary market enters the field of basic technology.” Huang Leping said that the field including hardware and underlying software technology is the direction pursued by most primary market investors.
“Moreover, from the perspective of the two markets at home and abroad, the direction of investment is also different.” According to Huang Leping’s observation, at present, the investment in China’s capital market is focused on AR / VR hardware and hardware related optical components. From the global market, due to the advantages of underlying technologies such as chips and blockchains, investment will also spread to relevant software technology fields.
“I think investors in the secondary market still need to wait for the industrial chain to further mature.” Huang Leping specially pointed out that since the metauniverse involves huge ecological construction, it has high requirements for investment companies. “In my opinion, it may not have a chance until Apple releases XR hardware, or Tencent, byte and other large companies release their own ecology.”
However, metauniverse is destined to be a track with enough snow and long enough. “In the long run, metauniverse is a track of the same scale as the Internet. Now get ready and have a chance in the future.” At the end of the interview, Huang Leping added.
(Shanghai Securities News)
