Virtual Reality in China: Is There a Sustainable Business Model for Virtual Reality Content Enterprises?

This paper provides a micro-perspective on the business activity of VR content production in China’s digital creative industries. It is based on two case studies in the form of semi-structured interviews with the founders of Pinta studios and Sandman studios. Questions concerning the development of sustainable VR content production in China are raised. This article employs the framework of business model canvas (BMC) to describe and analyse business models by exploring the dynamics and initiatives of VR content enterprises from 2016 to 2019. Research with Chinese VR content enterprises provides an opportunity to rethink many of the opportunities and challenges confronting Chinese VR content creators as they seek to implement this disruptive technology to engage consumers and adapt to the huge market in the future. Based on fieldwork research for these two case studies, exploring the dynamics and initiatives in the process of VR content production in China, the article finds that the need for specific and sustainable business models for VR enterprises represents a significant challenge. The paper concludes with some comments on the acquisition of ‘open literacy’, this time at enterprise level.