It looks like HTC is set to dominate the gigantic Chinese market with its Vive headset, with the Taiwanese giant inking a deal with Hangzhou-based ShunWang Technology, Inc - one of China's biggest Internet cafe software companies.
HTC and ShunWang have established a pilot program in Hangzhou, which lets players buy 10 minutes in a Vive-powered VR room for $2 to $5. Chairman of ShunWang, Hua Yong, explains: "The sustainable development of VR gaming needs hardcore gaming, which is mainly supported by Internet café platforms. As the biggest Internet café platform service provider in China, Shunwang will make full use of its existing network and operation capacity in the industry to bring the best VR experience to hundreds of millions of Internet café game players".
The big deal here is that ShunWang's software is used in over 100,000 Internet cafes across China, accounting for around 70% of Internet cafes. ShunWang says that their software is used by over 100 million Internet cafe users, so with over 100,000 cafes, how many Vive-powered VR rooms will they make? This deal has thrown HTC into an entire new ballgame, as when the Vive launches in April 2016, it could see a very bright future in China, too.
