This article is from WeChat public account: NeXTSCENE (theNeXTSCENE) author: neXTSCENE, the original title:” NeXT SCENE joint US group released its first Chinese chamber of Secrets industry report: “immersion” into high-frequency keyword “title figure from: vision China
NSR (NeXT SCENE Research) is located in Columbia University’s Entrepreneurship Lab. It is the most professional and pioneering immersive experience reporting media and community. . Committed to promoting the integration of art and new technology, breaking the boundaries of traditional theater stages, and exploring the development direction of future experiential entertainment.
In the afternoon of December 4, NeXT SCENE, an immersive experience and entertainment research institution in the United States, and the United States Mission released the “2019 Closed Chamber Industry Consumption Insight Report.” (hereinafter referred to as “” Report “) , for the first time comprehensively describe and interpret the Chinese closet industry, and use immersive experience as a starting point to gain insight into the development trend of the closet industry.
Figure: “Report” conference site
The immersive experience drives the development of the back room
The “Report” shows that from 2012 to 2014, a large number of secret room escape game experience stores began to emerge in China. Based on this, a large number of loyal secret room players appeared in China. From 2015 to 2017, the first generation of secret rooms was iteratively upgraded and entered the stage of industrialization development. An immersive interactive experience was introduced into the secret rooms. From then on, the attractiveness of the secret rooms to young people began to increase. After 2018, the domestic room industry has ushered in a booming period. Real-life reasoning variety shows such as “Star Detective” and “Escape from the Closed Room” have been broadcast successively. Large variety shows such as “Running Brothers” and “Rocket Girl 101” have been introduced. The star secret room special experience, the secret room gradually moved to the public view. In first-tier and new first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu, secret rooms have become the new favorite of some young people’s offline entertainment.
After more than ten years of development, the secret room has escaped from the original secret room and developed into a real-life game. The introduction of immersive experience makes the secret room carry more interactive and dramatic elements, and the player’s sense of participation is greatly enhanced.
According to NeXT SCENE’s “2019 Latest U.S. Escape Room Industry Development Report for the Last 5 Years”, the U.S. close room industry also originated around 2014 and has entered a period of rapid development in 15 years. However, NeXT SCENE noticed that since 18 years, the growth rate of the American closet industry has been slowing down, and China’s closet industry has been growing at more than 20% since 17 years.
Picture: Number of Stores in the US Closed Chamber Industry
Picture: The number of stores in the Chinese closet industry
Offline social scene, experiential consumption, immersive entertainment … The reason why China’s secret room is booming is precisely because it caters to the needs of young people today. “Report” shows that the high-frequency keywords in the user evaluation of the back room are “immersive, real-life games, scene design, creative” and so on.
Picture: US group, public comment, secret room consumption user evaluation hot words
“Meituan platform data shows that users before the 90’s preferred traditional health and leisure consumption, and those who were born after the 90’s, especially after the 95’s, were more inclined to stimulate, immerse, and have fun spending, which contributed nearly 90% online Play orders, consumption concepts and preferences have changed between generations. “Said Mei Chao, head of the leisure and entertainment business unit of Meituan Reviews.
Picture: Mei Chao, the head of the Leisure and Entertainment Business Department of Meituan Review, speaks
Professional operators, young players
Closed room design requires architecture, design, electronics, machinery, etc.Therefore, most of the operators in the closet industry have higher education and higher professional standards. The “Report” shows that 18.9% of the closet operators were business managers before engaging in the closet industry, ranking first; 11.9% of the closet operators were technical staff before the closet industry; 3.6% of the closet operators were working in the closet Previously, professionals were (such as doctor / lawyer / stylistic / reporter / teacher, etc.) .
Picture: Occupational distribution of Chinese closet industry operators before engaging in closet
NeXT SCENE found that most of the closet operators are also closet players. They are some young people who are meticulous and adventurous. Based on their knowledge and professionalism, these players have a higher acceptance of immersive experiences After they resigned and started business, they brought new technologies, applications, and immersive concepts to the closet industry, which promoted the development of the closet industry.
The founder of the immersive secret room experience hall “Yuyou Island” Zhao Yicheng was a former engineer of the State Grid Corporation, and co-founder Qi Fusheng was a former architect. Zhao Yicheng has a passion for reading, read tens of thousands of novels, and created a suspense secret room theme that impressed the secret room players during the entrepreneurial period. Zhao Pengyu, the founder of the immersive closet “Storm Island”, graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University. He was a former high-speed rail engineer. After joining the private room, he designed a mechanical train that made players praise.
The “Report” shows that users in the back room industry are mainly young people aged 20 to 35, accounting for 83.86% of back room players, and users between 35 and 50 years old also account for 10.33% of back room players. As the immersive experience in the back room brings players a real sense of participation, the back room has developed into a fashionable leisure and entertainment project that people of all ages, especially young people can accept and are willing to participate.
Figure: Age distribution of Chinese closet industry users in 2018
The immersiveness of the back room content helps the head back room to establish professional barriers
The closet is isolated from the outside world and naturally has the advantage of creating an immersive feeling. Users can experience the freshness in the closet. At the same time, electronic machinery, automation control, handheld PDA, wearable devices, AR technology, real-life NPC and other technology and performance means investment have also deepened the immersion and professionalism of the secret room. Compared with the first-generation back room, the head back room now has higher professional barriers, and it is difficult for late entrants to surpass it.
Secret Room “Anecdotes” constructs surreal scenes with professional electromechanical technology and spatial structure technology, and is committed to leading players to experience “Second Life” through different mechanical and electronic cooperation. Players can find super-realistic scenes such as room tilts, wall movements, room cracks, and mirrored worlds, and generate a sense of time and space confusion through immersive experience. In all the themes of “Anecdotes”, “A Hundred Years of Magic” is the most important. Through the scene change, the player is brought into the magical world, which subverts the player’s imagination.
Picture: The game scene in the main body of the “strange story” of the back room business
Shanghai’s immersive experience secret room “Youyou Island” combines innovative performance methods with storiesIn combination, with the comprehensive display of sound, light, electricity, and organs, it guides players into different scenes, interactive puzzle solving, opening organs to promote plots, and is deeply loved by players. In order to enhance the player’s experience, “House with Island” has more than 30 full-time staff such as closet room designers, modeling designers, posters, video designers, agency equipment engineers, sound effects engineers, programming programmers, fine arts, central control electricians, Created a number of original themes such as “Mingxiang Girls’ School”, “The Case of Yin Fu”, “Rouge Button” and so on.
Picture: Scene photo of “Yoyou Island” scene in the back room business
Establishing professional barriers by relying on immersion is particularly evident in the US backroom market. According to data from NeXT SCENE, between January and August 2019 alone, 42% of the United States and approximately 247 closed-room escape shops have ceased operations. In summary, the lack of commercial acuity and the poor quality of immersive content in stores are important reasons. Under such a large environment, the top secret room companies in the United States still maintain a large commercial scale relying on their professionalism in immersive content.
Picture: The number of closed-room industry stores closed in the United States in the past three years
The Chamber of Secrets has the potential to become a representative of emerging industries in China’s foreign cultural output
The 2019 Global Immersive Design Industry Development Report released by the American immersive experience and entertainment research institute NeXT and SCENE》 Shows that the mainstream secret rooms in North America are still the first-generation secret rooms that are mainly puzzle-solving. There is still a certain gap compared with the secret rooms in mainland China, especially the real-life NPC immersive rooms that have appeared in mainland China in recent years. Does not appear. This is also one of the important reasons for the slow growth of the US closed room market and the rapid development of the Chinese market.
According to NeXT SCENE, approximately one-third of the secret rooms in North America are opened by Chinese, most of them operators in Mainland China and Taiwan. The closet industry exchanges between China and the United States have become more frequent in recent years. NeXT SCENE understands that Chinese owners operating closet rooms in North America will go to Beijing to learn the experience of operating closet rooms and introduce Chinese closet machinery to the United States for closet upgrades.
Immersive experience is the development direction of the closet industry
The ceiling of the income of the closet business is obvious. The traditional closet uses ticketing as the main revenue method. Under the conditions of fixed floor area and fixed venues, the capacity of the closet is limited. Even if the closet is full, the ceiling of the income is still obvious. Against this background, some close-room merchants have begun to try to jointly develop immersive themes, thereby breaking through the restrictions of venues and venues, and expanding revenue.
Picture: Round table sharing at the event site
NeXT SCENE believes that enhancing the content output capability, and immersing themes under the line with independent IP and local tourism projects are the directions that the secret room industry can explore in the future. Cooperation with local governments to explore themes of cultural tourism will be a broad prospect for the secret room industry. The secret room industry has gathered a group of talents with planning capabilities, puzzle design capabilities, and immersive performance capabilities, which can effectively make up for the current stale content of some tourism and entertainment projects and lack of attractiveness to young people. NeXT SCENE looks forward to exploring and cooperating with immersive backroom businesses of local governments at all levels, combining local characteristics, jointly planning and developing immersive cultural tourism themes, enhancing the vitality of local cultural tourism, promoting tourism consumption and driving the development of tourism.
This article is from WeChat public account: NeXTSCENE (theNeXTSCENE) author: neXTSCENE