At the beginning of the year, the news that the first share of AR hologram WiMi Hologram Cloud (WIMI.US) would list the IPO was circulated in the market. Today, the news has finally been confirmed.

According to the Zhitongcaijing APP, the prospectus of WiMi Hologram Cloud has been publicized on the SEC official website. According to the data, WiMi Hologram Cloud is going to be listed on NASDAQ, and initially planned to raise 50 million USD.

With the approach of 5G commercialization, the VR/AR industry is about to erupt. As a holographic AR integrated solution service provider, WiMi Hologram Cloud ranks first in China in terms of revenue, number of customers, number of patents, number of contents and number of copyright. And the company has achieved profitability, with revenue of 225 million yuan in 2018 and a net profit of 90.97 million yuan. As of the year ended December 31, 2018, the holographic AR produced by the software of WiMi Hologram Cloud has been displayed a total of approximately 6.6 billion times, compared to approximately 4.9 billion times as of the year ended December 31, 2017. The “display” is also known as “impression”. It is considered as an impression or a display each time it is viewed. (* Source: U.S. SEC - FORM F-1, WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc., Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), June 27, 2019.)

Before learning about WiMi Hologram Cloud, it’s necessary to have a basic understanding of VR, AR and MR. VR is virtual reality, and users can interact naturally with the virtual world with specific devices. AR is augmented reality, and this technology can superimpose the virtual world with the real world. Users can interact through the device. There is a small game called “AR Jumping” in Ant Farm of Alipay. This game is simple scene application of augmented reality. MR is mixed reality, and it creates new environments and visualizes the three-dimensional world by combining real and virtual worlds. From the technical boundary, AR contains VR and MR contains AR.

WiMi Hologram Cloud’s holographic AR advertising software allows customers to insert real or animated 3D objects into video clips, and seamlessly integrate objects and videos with scene clips in the video, while advertisements are primarily inserted into movies and TV shows.

Compared with traditional digital advertising, the advertisements with holographic AR technology are more interactive, and its cost-effectiveness and flexibility are more obvious. It can recognizes duplicate advertising spaces for multiple branded advertisements, saving costs.

The development momentum of holographic AR advertising business is relatively rapid. Both the number of customers and the unit price of the customer have been significantly increased in the past two years. According to Zhitongcaijing APP, the number of customers in the advertising business was 97 and 121 in 2017 and 2018 respectively, with the average price of 1.4 million and 1.5 million yuan. In the first quarter of 2019, the number of customers and the unit price increased year-on-year. WiMi Hologram Cloud’s holographic AR advertising software allows users to insert real or animated 3D objects into the video and then seamlessly integrated them into the video. WiMi Hologram Cloud’s online holographic AR advertising solution embeds holographic AR advertisements into the movies and shows hosted by China’s leading online video media platform. As of the year ended December 31, 2018, the holographic AR produced by the software of WiMi Hologram Cloud has been displayed a total of approximately 6.6 billion times, compared to approximately 4.9 billion times as of the year ended December 31, 2017. The “display” is also known as “impression”. It is considered as an impression or a display each time it is viewed.

Thanks to the driving of strong advertising business, the performance of WiMi Hologram Cloud is also more brilliant. In 2018, the revenue increased by 17.19% year-on-year, and the growth rate of gross profit and net profit was above 20%. Under the driving of average unit price, the gross profit rate and net profit rate in 2018 increased compared with 2017.

* Source: U.S. SEC - FORM F-1, WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc., Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), June 27, 2019.