Uncover Latin America’s XR ecosystem with Oscar Cartagena

Whats up Oscar, are you able to introduce your self to my readers?

Gladly. I’m Oscar Cartagena and I’m a serial entrepreneur. I dwell to create and create to dwell.

I’ve been working in expertise and multimedia for the previous 25 years, doing the whole lot from graphic design, sound manufacturing and modifying, music manufacturing, video, illustration, printing, coding, and the whole lot in between. For the previous 5 years I’ve been hell-bent on making a strong XR trade in Chile by funding the primary (and solely) commerce union affiliation devoted to XR applied sciences and immersive experiences, the Asociación Gremial Chilena de Experiencias Inmersivas (ACHEX A.G.). It’s a at present round 30-company-strong affiliation centered on XR applied sciences and their affect on Chilean and Latin American societies. Amongst many issues, we collaborate with authorities entities, different commerce union associations (out and in of Chile), teachers, and scientists to determine methods to reap extra advantages than issues for our society by the usage of these applied sciences. Final however not least, I additionally personal an experiential advertising and inventive applied sciences boutique company in Santiago known as Augmented Experiences.

What are some XR tasks you labored on recently?

I cut up my time between my work as president of the affiliation and the company (which has three totally different enterprise items), so I’ve bought issues occurring everywhere. As president and trade chief I’ve managed fairly some attention-grabbing issues this previous yr: I managed to convey collectively Chilecreativo (the inventive economies division for the Chilean Improvement Company), the CRT+IT (a public+personal initiative for tech innovation within the inventive economies sector) and our affiliation, to type an alliance with Meta and create 500 augmented actuality scholarships for Chileans (which has over 1.5K candidates as of this writing).

I additionally led a bunch of 8 Chilean corporations, that have been awarded a authorities fund to create the 1st Chilean XR trade export hub, and inside that initiative, we traveled to Immerse International Community – Miami in December, to advertise and paved the way for the Chilean XR exports. We additionally hosted an area VR DAY occasion, with an ideal public reception and attention-grabbing audio system & subjects.

I might go on and on, it has been an unbelievable yr for the affiliation and the Chilean XR trade. As for the company, we did some cool stuff for Lenovo Chile earlier this yr: labored on a very intense motoGP simulator for Oculus and in addition did this superior display screen pillar with Kinect. We’re at present engaged on some immersive areas for Universities and in addition revisiting Posterity, which was my ardour venture earlier than the ACHEX got here into my life.

I wish to discover with you the issue of XR headsets in Latin America. Generally we from Europe or the US don’t notice how is it tough in different areas to get entry to {hardware}. Are you able to inform us how is the scenario there? How is it attempting to purchase a Quest 2 or Valve Index in Latin America?

Nicely, I can inform you this, Mr. Spock from Star Trek would argue that there isn’t a drawback, since there isn’t a resolution. It’s a royal ache to get {hardware} in Chile. I imply, apart from the Oculus Quest 2, there’s hardly something to get regionally. Your greatest guess is Amazon and coping with the worldwide delivery expenses. I take the freedom to say the Quest 2 as a result of it’s the one VR headset that you would be able to get at a retail retailer and that has the SEC rules (Nationwide Bureau of Electrical energy and Gasoline) so as to be bought legally.

I’ve been working to assist worldwide distributors tender land in Chile but it surely’s been a protracted journey and I’m hopeful that in 2023 we’ll see some strong progress on this specific space. What’s actually difficult is that getting the {hardware} is simply half the battle. To “win the struggle” that you must even have an authorized and educated workforce that’s capable of repair (and finally improve) mentioned {hardware}. As you’ll be able to see, this makes issues slower, particularly as a result of I strongly imagine that not one of the {hardware} distributors has any form of {hardware} technical certification/coaching program obtainable. So even when we managed to entice an enormous vendor to come back and promote their {hardware} right here, we might nonetheless have to ship our {hardware} again to US/EU/ASIA to get it mounted and/or checked out. Another choice can be to have that large vendor open a business and technical workplace within the nation, which might then blast the implementation prices by the roof, making it much less interesting and setting that ROI actually far on the horizon.

I suppose most of you XR professionals need to resort to getting some headsets shipped by buddies from different international locations. How does assist work in that case?

There isn’t any native (or regional) assist. It’s important to ship it over to the US (best-case state of affairs) and hope for one of the best. And it is a crucial level as a result of I’ve at all times mentioned to distributors like HTC, Snap, or Meta, we want {hardware} AND {hardware} technicians. It’s a double combo that’s wanted for this to truly work out mid-term.

Why do you assume there isn’t a curiosity by the {hardware} corporations in distributing in your space?

I don’t assume that there isn’t a curiosity. I believe that the curiosity is there however they lack numbers to again up their selections and investments. One of many most important points I see in our Latin American XR trade is the lack of awareness relating to market data. Easy issues like market measurement, variety of headsets obtainable or bought, some share or one thing which may inform the corporate that it’s the proper time to speculate…There’s little to go about.

Now, corporations might do that themselves, however these large distributors are struggling to promote in their very own areas (which have gotten crowded), they don’t have the time nor the native contacts to fetch actual and helpful data so they only sit and wait till somebody does the heavy lifting or one other firm is the primary one. The difficulty with “blue ocean methods” is that any savvy businessman will at all times advise in opposition to being “the primary one”, and Latin America is a big blue ocean relating to this sort of {hardware}. I can’t assist however surprise why there isn’t anybody (that I’ve heard of) engaged on a Latin American pancake optic cardboard resolution, or one thing alongside the traces of accessibility in a area that’s stuffed with smartphones, respectable connectivity, and missing specialised {hardware} *trace*.

Might finally governments assist by supporting XR corporations and engaging manufacturers like Meta to ship to Latin America?

Certainly I imagine so. Chile has many alternative applications that may very well be helpful to any distributors which can be prepared to place the work in to come back and promote. We’ve additionally spoken about creating some type of tender touchdown program to assist these corporations with native certifications, firm creation, taxes, and all doable assist we might present from a personal and public perspective. I believe that governments in Latin America have an interest however they face larger points. When confronted with the choice between getting a Quest 2 or going to the grocery store to get meals, you may say that priorities get in the best way. Bottomline I see numerous curiosity and craving for this trade to actually take off, however just a few are prepared to actually “put their cash the place their mouth is”.

What are the difficulties for an XR firm there? Is it extra difficult to outlive than for corporations within the West?

I believe that there are numerous issues working in opposition to us within the present state of the trade in Chile. First off, we’re a really younger and largely-unknown trade, so the doable advantages for various enterprise verticals are nonetheless dodgy – this requires time and academic efforts with stakeholders to get to an excellent floor and talk about actual work. Second, for the reason that trade’s booming in the intervening time, there are a whole lot of “snake oil distributors” roaming round and promoting concepts or ideas that find yourself being nothing however empty guarantees. That is clearly a world phenomenon however nonetheless detrimental to the trade, particularly in an inherently nascent one like ours. Third, entry to world-scale budgets. Our native budgets are very restricted and small compared to rest-of-the-world budgets (about 1/third if we’re optimistic about it), that is why exporting XR items and companies is essential to the development of our trade (and salaries!).

What do you assume Latin America must have a greater XR ecosystem?

Group, actionable information, commerce union associations, and public-private joint ventures to advertise and push new initiatives at a tempo that makes extra sense than the “authorities machine”. The factor about governments is that they’re SLOW and it’s onerous to not be continually reacting to technological shifts as a substitute of getting a well-defined, lean, and versatile plan of action.

International locations in Latin America have to be organized and construct their very own formal commerce associations, acquire traction, and push their native governments into growing government-backed initiatives for his or her trade. I’d say that on the very least, they need to spend money on producing stories and research that validate both the trade as an entire or particular enterprise verticals. This manner, overseas corporations could have information to work with and have the ability to make data-assisted selections for his or her investments and advertising/gross sales efforts in that specific nation, whereas serving to the remainder of the area have actionable information.

What are probably the most attention-grabbing corporations from there?

There’s rather a lot occurring over right here! In Chile we have now some nice examples of high quality work in corporations like PleIQ, YOY Simulators, Posterity, Minverso, Almagico VR, InvadeLab, VICO Science, and lots of others. In Latin America there’s too many to say, each nation has their very own specialty and a few corporations thrive within the worldwide market with award-winning content material/experiences like “The Line” from R. Laganaro in Brazil and “4 ft excessive” from D. Kernieh in Argentina.

Are there sufficient VR-related web sites in Spanish? I find out about Actual O Digital, as an example…

There aren’t that many, and to be trustworthy, I seldom learn in Spanish, however I do know another scorching spots for Spanish data relating to the trade. There’s Emilio’s weblog known as Emiliusvgs, he has executed rather a lot for the Latin American XR group as he’s been creating content material (opinions, tutorials, information) for a very long time. There’s additionally Alehandoro from Spain, which I haven’t spoken to, however he’s bought a whole lot of content material as effectively. As you talked about there’s Actual o Digital (with whom I had the pleasure of collaborating with for nearly a yr doing XR information from Latam), despite the fact that they’re very centered on VR they do nice work reviewing {hardware} and software program. There are different smaller expertise retailers on the market, however I’d say these are those with extra publicity.

And what are the communities to be concerned in?

The “XR Latam” Whatsapp group I’d say is the biggest and most lively group in the intervening time. This group is run by a number of Latin American leaders and gathers totally different XR professionals and fans. One other group that I personally like is the “Meta Spark – Español” group. It’s very lively and so they share a great deal of data. I personally like this group as a result of they collaborate usually and assist one another freely. Final however not least, there may be the ACHEX group.

How is the”metaverse” perceived in your nation?

It’s a love-hate relationship. On one finish there are large quantities of hype and there are metaverse initiatives popping up left and proper. On the opposite finish, there’s a whole lot of worry and concern relating to immersive applied sciences and their results on society, from a tutorial, political, and social angle. I imagine that is largely fueled in some circumstances by misinformation and/or straight-up lack of awareness.

Understanding the “metaverse” or immersive applied sciences as an entire is a really “far on the market” idea for most individuals and it requires a whole lot of creativeness and information or at the least, the understanding of many advanced ideas which can be summary and onerous to understand, so I’d say worry and concern as a primary response seems like a really humane factor. Nonetheless, within the native scene, I believe that the purpose of those considerations is to reduce social harm whereas reaping as many advantages as doable, which is a refreshing perspective that enables us (authorities and commerce associations) to work as companions as a substitute of ideological enemies.

Now in case you exit on the streets of Santiago and the remainder of Chile and ask in regards to the Metaverse, effectively… you’ll get a little bit of the whole lot. I lately heard a few personal examine that was executed in a rural space of Santiago. Children have been requested in the event that they knew in regards to the Metaverse, and the outcomes are staggering, about over 90% of children mentioned that they had by no means even heard the time period. So, taking that into consideration, there’s nonetheless a protracted option to go relating to immersive alphabetization and workforce upskilling.

Anything so as to add to this interview?

I believe it’s lengthy sufficient as it’s Tony!

I suppose I can solely thank anybody that’s learn this far. Let’s hyperlink up and collaborate 😀