采訪&翻譯&編輯: Vivian Peng
文字校對：Viking Wang
(原創內容, 轉載請務必注明來自數英網)
特別感謝: Total Immersion亞太區數字營銷經理Katie Tang女士

喬布斯、扎克伯格、麥克尼利?在一段時間以前，這些人改變了我們的工作生活以及溝通方式。從那以后，技術界的人才攜帶著各種將會為人類世界帶來顛覆性變革的創新技術，一步步走向了歷史舞臺的前沿，并不斷試圖影響人們的日常生活。

技術究竟對我們這個世界有著怎樣的影響？ 2006年，Kevin Kelly在TED上一則驚動世界的演講《How Technology Evolves》中，他把技術本質的研究轉化成一個終極問題：技術的野心是什么？他的結論是: 技術與生物世界的進化史一樣，最終將逐漸蔓延至世界各地的任何一個角落，人們的未來生活將無處不存在技術的滲透。（Complexity, Diversity, Specialization, Ubiquity, Evolvability.）

直到今天，我們再回頭去看今天走在時代主流上的各種創新技術一路的發展軌跡: 原始技術雛形——設計成為一種創新的體驗方式——走入商業世界——生活世界的日常工具。歸根到底，各種假設都需要在現實中找到證據方才具有傳播的價值。

今天我們把視線聚焦在技術世界重要成員之一——Augmented Reality增強現實技術。若是幾年前，說到AR還算是鮮為人知的新鮮技術的話，那么今天，AR無疑已經不斷為越來越多的人們所熟悉了。這項技術究竟是怎樣發展著，怎樣一步步走向了商業世界，對于未來又有怎樣的布局和打算呢？

Philippe De Passorio 是Total Immersion亞太區掌門人。在2009年，當時正在全球最大的軟件設計公司之一Autodesk中擔任要職的Philippe被突如其來的獵頭，以及兩個“Think out of box”的神奇人士長達半天的“忽悠”改變了之后五年的全部生活，加入Total Immersion之后，為公司成功地將營業額帶來大幅提升。2009年，他只身一人來到香港，建立了Total Immersion的亞太區總部，然而當時，幾乎沒有人知道什么是AR 是什么玩意兒，要做一個AR 的技術演示，需要動用兩臺巨大的臺式電腦，進行長達半個小時的裝置準備。當時，誰會對這樣一個技術玩意兒多看幾眼，誰又會看到它將來的市場前景呢？！

在我們看來一切的不可思議和疑惑，大概都會被Philippe描繪AR 時的那種熱情與篤定氣勢給打消。從他的一席談話中，我們看到的不僅是虛擬交互技術的市場化普及化事業的先行者，及其一路的歷史和故事，更能深受感染，看到AR技術的未來似錦藍圖似乎也竟不太遙遠。也許真的不需要幾年，AR 將會與我們每一個人的生活息息相關呢？

互動中國專訪： Total Immersion亞太區創立人/總裁Philippe De Passarion, 聽聽他從自身經歷以及作為一個marketing 資深人士的尖銳洞察之中，一看AR 技術的前世，市場應用情況，市場前景，以及長遠的展望。

Q: 數英網
Ph:  Philippe De Passorio

AR 技術的前世，今生，以及價值何在

People always want to be part of the story, and it’s what AR can bring.
Market usage of AR may fade out or become out-dated fashion later, but the e-commerce/m-commerce usage will be a new start.

Q：跟我們簡單介紹下您自己和貴公司吧

Ph: 當然，我是現任Total Immersion亞太區負責人，管理亞太區的市場營銷事務，同時也是公司P&L產品運營主管。Total Immersion自創建以來一直專注于增強現實的技術領域，我們為全球各地的技術開發者提供全球最大規模的AR 應用平臺軟件以及AR整合營銷應用服務。

Q：讓我們把時間撥回到2006年，他在當時全球最為領先的數字化設計技術公司之——Autodesk中擔任市場營銷和銷售總監，為什么在當時的情況下轉而選擇了一家在當時根本名不見經傳的小公司去做一個更小的領域呢？究竟是怎么想的，您為什么核對AR寄語如此的厚望呢？

Ph: 當時有一個獵頭找到了我，他問我，是否愿意去一家我當時甚至聽都沒聽過的叫做Total Immersion 的公司，擔任市場營銷總監職位，當時，那家公司總共加起來也不到12個人的樣子。不過當時那個獵頭還挺能耐，把我說服了去和T-I公司的兩個創始人見一面，這一見就足足談了半天之久，他們絕對是兩個thinking out of the box的家伙，當時，他們就真的讓我眼前放佛看到未來五年AR市場一篇欣欣向榮的繁榮景象！ 現在你要玩個AR，不用幾秒鐘就可以在手機上展示非常生動豐富的交互過程了。可在那個時候，你們能想象嗎，那可是2006年，當時要演示AR技術，需要搬兩臺超大的臺式PC，光是演示前的裝置就要倒騰半個小時！我自己都覺得不可思議，這一半小時的談話，徹底改變了我之后的所有生活。

Q ： (笑~)我想您的這一決定是非常正確的。這些年來，不但是國外，就中國國內在短短的這些時間時間里，涌現出各種各樣基于AR技術的新玩意兒。從游戲，到各種手機APP，營銷領域就更是舉不勝舉了，各種消費品以各種不同的方式與AR技術相結合，讓普通消費者打大開眼界。還有各種各樣的現場大會，或者是路演活動，發布會等等，在現場都不斷應用AR技術為現場帶來高漲的氣氛和效果。盡管如此，我們還是想知道，AR技術對于今天的市場營銷究竟扮演的是怎樣的角色和價值呢？真的已經成為主流了嗎？或者還有多少距離？

Ph: 事實上，在5-6年之前，我們的AR技術主要運用在軍事領域（實地演習），以及生產制造（設備維護組裝等maintenance, assembly,…）方面。大約是從四五年前開始，AR逐漸在市場營銷方面產生了一些應用經驗，主要用于路演、展覽活動、現場秀等，而后是網絡Campaign、還有移動終端上的營銷活動。我想對于市場營銷來說，擁有強大互動性的AR技術的鼎力支持是功不可沒的。它能使消費者更樂于參與營銷活動，與品牌進一步地互動。并且AR能夠進一步地襯托出產品的賣點，并在消費者身上建立共鳴和情感聯系。在我們與終端的零售商店、超市賣場合作的過程中發現：每當一個消費者愿意對著AR產品演示駐足觀看30秒鐘，那他會有九成的機會發生購買。 真金不怕火煉，我們曾成功地幫助零售商提升了四成的銷售業績。

案例視頻

Total Immersion 案例 – 吉利剃須刀店內AR增強現實體驗

Total Immersion 案例 – 超市零售新辦法 AR技術運用到零售業

人們對于故事有著天然的欲望，他們喜歡融入故事場景之中，這就是AR能夠帶給人們的魅力。但是，這并不能真的讓AR技術在市場領域里成為主流。何時AR真正能登上主流營銷舞臺？ 就是在它應用于B2C行業，并且真正創造價營收的那天！感謝各種獨具特色的創新硬件設備，為AR技術和B2C營銷打開了前所未有的合作契機！目前，我們已經成功與幾個市場核心的設備開發商達成合作，成功地使AR以“硬件”的身份嵌入移動終端智能設備里，不再需要下載軟件，直接就能支持并應用AR功能。

Q: AR 技術的未來會是什么呢？我們知道，如今各種新興的交互技術不斷誕生，有沒有這樣的可能性，AR 在某天成為一種過氣的技術？

Ph: 一旦AR技術能成功地蛻變成為硬件設備，就會帶來難以估量的巨變！我們可以想象一下，在不久的將來，就會誕生出各種便攜式能直接上網的眼鏡或者鏡片，能直接在人們眼前呈現各種互聯網信息。這種類型的硬件設備勢必會為AR打開巨大的日常應用契機，到那時，AR可以在這類便攜上網設備上帶來導航顯示功能。

或許，當你在網上瀏覽某個產品的信息或者是某個用戶/好友的信息的同時，該產品,甚至是該用戶本人就會即刻出現在你的面前！??AR可以作為一個攝像頭傳感器， 識別和跟蹤周邊的環境信息，這在如今人們使用的各種設備上都可以實現，這就意味著， 每當你打開了一個新的應用程序，就意味著你為AR傳感器打開了又一道全新的的大門。看看今天，攝像頭在人們對智能手機的應用上已經與GPS導航一樣，變得越來越重要，與人們生活密不可分。

即便在市場營銷領域里，或許AR某一天會過時，但是，對于e-commerce/m-commerce（網上購物/手機購物）領域來說，必將會是一個嶄新的開始。并且，與此同時，AR將搭乘數字化購物的翅膀，真正進入人們的生活，為人們帶來全新的購物體驗，與日產生活產生息息相關的影響，

AR坎坷進化路——AR技術的商業化價值及其實現

Still many people don’t really understand AR, so we need to explain a lot on that；
It’s difficult to recruit the right talent to work on an AR project.. AR is new and not many records can trace back；
Asia market is too big and very different. We need to work a lot on localization, make it adopts to different local market；
Corporate company sometimes is scared to try new thing, but following something which is already existed；

Q：我們知道，自從2009年你將Total Immersion帶到了亞太市場，從無到有，一路帶領亞太區團隊迅速成長。今天，我們看到貴公司正在亞太市場逐日地壯大，您可以與我們描述一下在09年時的亞太市場狀況嗎，AR技術應用是怎樣的景象？與今時今日有怎樣的差異？

Ph: 2009年我在香港成立了Total Immersion亞太區團隊的時候，整個亞太區的營業額只站了全球營業總額的 5％左右。 就在1年后，提升至了20％，去年2011年，我們已經把數字成功地提升到了 31％。 在歐洲國家的市場里，AR應用開始得比較早，同時期的亞洲幾乎沒多少人知道AR。所以，不可否認的是，過去會出現有些AR營銷案例效仿其他地區的情況。但是，亞洲市場正在以驚人的速度成長，逐漸地從一個追隨者轉變成一個引領者。 如今，這里的人們越來越了解AR，于是，在AR的營銷應用上也擁有越來越多自己的優秀創意。

Q：從您的角度來看，AR在哪些行業或領域應用較多？在不久的將來最有潛力的領域又會是哪些？

Ph： 就從我們自己的例子來說，我們大約有50％的項目都是與市場營銷相關。包括一些展示和移動應用。 20％左右應用在電子商務領域，30％是產品相關的應用。產品應用指的不是產品營銷，而是指應用AR技術來強化產品物理特征的增殖性應用。 例如：

Total Immersion 案例 – 未來圖書 AR增強現實技術，加強與互動性的學習和演習：

Total Immersion 案例 – 新型賀卡 AR增強現實技術

我們甚至可以提高玩具AR動畫
Total Immersion 案例 – James Cameron’s AR 游戲卡

如果是作為電子商務的一部分，我們可以看到，市場需求將會很大。今天電子商務方面的應用已經是我們市場戰略的重要一部分。此外，我們在未來還將更多地應用于移動領域。

Showcase:
用于各種現場活動、產品發布會：

是3D裸眼還是后制? 其實是增強現實 (附4個AR案例)

用于品牌營銷：

Total Immersion – Nivea營銷案例

用于電子商務：

Total Immersion 案例 – eBay的最新眼鏡佩戴手機體驗

Q： 您在這些年來，致力于將 AR技術推向更廣大的市場營銷與商用領域的過程中，您覺得在面對營銷主的時候，最大的挑戰是什么？

Ph: 到目前為止，我們依然需要面對一系列挑戰：

1. 仍有很多人并不了解AR，因此，需要在開始對客戶說很多才能讓他們對AR有一個基本的了解。

2. 很難招到AR方面的人才。因為AR是一個比較新興的領域，應聘者通常也無法在應聘的時候提供太多這方面工作的經歷參考。

3. 亞洲市場地域廣袤，不同地區之間又有極大的差異，我們在投入一個地區的市場之前，需要做相當大量的前期了解工作，才能對當地市場有一個先期的了解，而后才能根據本地市場的特性來較好地應用AR于市場之中。

4. 不少企業，尤其是規模比較大型的公司，其營銷人士有時還是會有些怯于嘗新，寧可選擇效仿一些已有其他人做過的東西。

與技術共崛起的技術創新型公司力量(Total Immersion)

編者前言：

商業型的公司必將是推動各個技術最終實現商業化發展出路最終達到普及應用的道路中最重要的推動力量，作為一家典型的經歷了市場化普及斗爭的技術先驅公司，我們希望從Philippe身上了解更多技術驅動型公司的發展情況與所面對的各種商業化問題。尤其，是面對亞洲市場的過程中，是怎樣的圖景？

Our competitors may become our friends!

Q: 作為增強現實解決方案的全球領導者，您可以形容一下貴公司與其他AR技術公司相比最大的優勢嗎？

Ph: 我們在目前全球的AR市場上是占有領導性地位，不僅僅是因為我們在團隊人數的規模上是最大的。在項目交付（2011年平均每天交付兩個項目）及營收額方面，同樣是走在最前面的。 此外，我們在AR技術方面擁有全球最大規模的研發團隊，并且我們只專注于AR。

目前在全球擁有6個辦事處，共計 135個特約經銷商辦事處 ，遍布35個國家和地區。目前，我們的營收在全球AR領域的總營收上占據 85％的比重。我們的技術支持PC/MAC，iPhone，Android系統，并且是同類技術應用中最大規模的。

此外，與德州儀器(Texas Instruments)建立了緊密的合作關系，確保D’ Fusion平臺將充分利用OMAP 架構所提供的最好的移動設備，因此，只要是OMAP的用戶，就能夠直接在自己的產品展示上直接在OMAP上應用D’Fusion的 快速圖像識別，優秀的渲染能力，非凡的追蹤能力等技術。這這種合作為雙方用戶帶來的利益也是驚人的！

這就是我們的優勢，全球AR市場中最有實力的團隊，最具有活力和創新力的企業。我們更將自己的競爭對手視作自己的合作伙伴，，這就是Total Immersion！

編者注：Philippe 最描述自己公司實力的同時，所有人都能為他的熱情與信心所感染，相信，除了對于公司業務的捍衛，更是對未來的堅信，相信這也是為何以Philippe為首的亞太區團隊能以驚人的速度不斷在市場中發展的重要原因之一，人們都會為情感共鳴所征服，商業世界也不外如此。

Q： 現在Total Immersion亞洲公司是如何呢？是你的團隊規模如何？大家分享一些最新數字營銷和電子商務領域的項目？

Ph: 目前我們在東京，香港設有分公司，同時在上海也有一支分包商團隊。目前亞太區團隊主要是由營銷團隊，銷售團隊以及技術服務團隊組成。

Total Immersion 最新項目展示：

華為在CES上展出的AR游戲

萬寧AR戶外營銷活動

LV日本

Q： 亞太區是否有專門的創新研發團隊呢？有的話，占多少比重呢？專業AR技術人員與其他人員的比率大約是多少呢？ 你如何激勵你的團隊保持持續的創新？

Ph: 創新是我們公司每天面對的日常工作流程的一部分，是公司DNA的重要部分，密不可分。每個人都始終處于創新的動力之中。

公司每月舉辦“創新交流會”，從技術工程師到銷售經理，每個人都需要在這里表達自己的創意點子和想法，每人有20分鐘陳述時間。向自己的上級老板以及全公司同事詮釋，可以是任何創新的點子，可以是一個新產品的功能，一個新的App創意，以及任何其他與AR應用相關的想法。

Q: 您如何招聘員工？ 尋找AR技術相關專業的人才是否存在什么困難？您是否會接受外行或者這行還不了解的新人？ 請分享您在這方面的經驗。

Ph: 我們聘請專業的獵頭公司幫助我們招人，大約需要3個左右密集的搜索才能找到一個合適的我們當然愿意新人加入我們，這會幫助我們增加團隊的潛力，只要他對AR工作有熱情。并且充滿工作斗志。

在我們的團隊里，大家都是那種樂于不斷打破常規思維的人，并且喜歡不斷給自己挑戰。 我們在亞太區兩年多額時間里，營收業績翻了六翻。只有一個高潛力的團隊可以支持這個巨大的增長，并與公司共同成長。舉個例子來說吧，我們聘請了一個剛剛畢業才9個月的應屆畢業工程師，他的工作能力與日增長，在9個月里完成了多個不同的項目，現在，我們將更多更大的任務都交給他完成，基于他更大的權限與責任，他一個人管理20名工程師組成的團隊，表現非常不錯。

崛起中的技術與創新應用市場

Q： 您Total Immersion亞洲計劃在不久的將來有什么？你所要面對的潛在最大挑戰將是什么？

Ph: 在我們的2年計劃，我們將擴大中國的團隊，同時將在韓國設立分公司，希望實現總體營收上50％的增長。為了做到這一點，我們需要加強在局部地區的戰略聯盟，譬如我們已經與日本的KDDI簽署了戰略聯盟合作協議； 在意大利與Intel、Adobe，在美國與eBay、德州儀器都有合作。在亞洲地區，我們可能依然會遵循這條發展道路，

Q: 對于中國市場有什么具體的計劃嗎？據我們所知，Total Immersion正在同中國密切的頻繁，尤其是中國內地市場。你如何看待它的營銷潛力呢？

Ph： 在中國的業務越來越多，占據整個亞 太地區收入的30％。我們希望能在未來兩年提升50％。中國擁有廣闊的電子商務和移動電子商務市場，潛力極其巨大。我們已經與主要的電商伙伴有了一定的接觸。

Q: 最后，是否還有什么經驗或者心得與DamnDigital的讀者分享的？

Ph： 真正的創新，必定能夠為人們的生活帶來改變的 。

根據Juniper的研究報告稱，到2012年搭載有AR技術的智能手機將達到197萬價值的市場盈利空間 。我想，他們并沒有真正把中國市場考慮在內在中國市場的巨大潛力！

我希望在這里，對所有DamnDigital的讀者呼吁，一起投入這一篇前程似錦的AR市場，發揮每一個人的想象力，為中國市場創造更多AR技術的應用前景。未來在你手中，每一個人都有充分把握未來的機會！

編者結語：

技術的發展與融合必將會是接下來較長時間內的重要發展主題，除了不斷增加中西方合作關系，更多國際先進力量的加入域支持的同時，據我們所知，其實在我們國內同樣具有不少潛力巨大專注于AR 技術研究與應用的實驗室，工作室，本土技術力量與國際技術巨頭之間又會以怎樣的關系與協力共同促成AR 與技術生態的協調發展呢？

此外，各位讀者你們對于AR 以及整個技術領域是如何看待的呢？它的發展路徑，與商業及生活世界的關系將如何演變，又會有怎樣的期待呢？

歡迎大家留言與我們交流。

******************************************************

Interview: English Version

—— Interview Question for Mr. Philippe De Passorio, the head of Total Immersion Asia

DM: Hey! Can you quickly introduce yourself and describe Total Immersion briefly to us?
Ph: Sure. As Head of Asia Pacific, I oversee the execution of Total Immersion’s market strategies and manage the Company’s P&L operations throughout the region. Total Immersion is a software company dedicated on Augmented Reality. We provide the largest AR platform software to developers and a fully integrated AR solution to the market.

DM: Let’s back to the year of 2006, you were working at Autodesk, and then you chose Total Immersion to be your new start point, what was the motivation? Or, to be more clearly, what is the attraction that Augmented Reality Technology has to you?

Ph: I was headhunted by a specialized recruiting company in order to take the position of Sales Director for a small and unknown company called Total Immersion. At this time, the company had 12 people onboard only. The headhunter convinces me to meet the two founders of the company. After half a day meeting with these 2 “thinking out of the box” guys, I had the vision of how big could be the AR market in the following 5 years. In 2006, you needed 2 big desktop PC and half an hour installation to run a simple demo today, a rich and fully interactive experience can be run onto your smartphone in few second. This half day meeting changed my life for the following 5 years.

DM: We keep hearing new inventions that are based by Augmented Reality Technology. From Games, Mobile apps to consumer products, and also many live experience shows in recent years.How do you see the value of AR In today’s marketing diagram? Do you think AR is already being the mainstream now? Or how far the distance will be?

Ph: 6 to 5 years ago, we used AR for military application (on site training) and manufacturing process (maintenance, assembly,…). Since 5 to 4 years, we are using AR in marketing campaign fir On Stage Show, exhibition, online campaign and mobile marketing activation. Thanks to the interactivty of AR, it lets user engage and interact directly with the brand, increasing emotional attachment to the product. A consumer has 90% chance to buy the product if he have it in his hand for more than 30 secondes. This is exactly what we are providing with AR in Store. We generate an uplift of 400% by using AR in Store.

People always want to be part of the story, and it’s what AR can bring. But it’s still not mainstream at that moment. To be mainstream, we need to create a B2C offer. , New devices with powerful features open new opportunity for AR on the B2C market. We are already working with some major hardware companies to implement AR into the mobile, so changing it from software to be embedded and ready-to-use in hardware.

DM: How far will AR go to in the future? New technology is coming to birth almost by daily basis. What if some day that AR become out-date fashion? How AR will influence everyone’s daily life?

Ph: Revolution will happen when it comes to the hardware. We can imagine in a near future to have light eyewear or lens which display information on top of it. This kind of hardware will definitely open the door to huge potential of usage like self navigation, get information on a product or a person as soon you look at it/him visualize the social profile of a person… AR is using the video camera as a sensor in order to recognize and track the environment. As soon as you add a new sensor to a device like a mobile phone, you open the way for new application using this new sensor. Look at the number of disruptive application using the compass of the iPhone today. Cameras are becoming as important as the compass or GPS in your smartphone. . Marketing usage of AR may fade out or become out-dated fashion later, but the e-commerce/m-commerce usage will be a new start. Involving to the purchasing process is a way to influence everyone’s daily life; user shopping experience may also changes in someday.

DM：As we know, you have grown up and manage the regional team, structuring the Total Immersion Asia Team Hong Kong 1999 (it should be 2009), Can you describe the marketing conditions of AR at that time? And how do you compare the picture of current marketing situation and the picture of 2 years ago?

Ph: I set up the APAC team in Hong Kong in 2009; the turnover of APAC was around 5% of the total turnover of Total Immersion at that time. 1 year later, it increase to 20% and last year 2011, we already hit to 31% of the total company turnover. AR starts earlier in European countries, not many people know about AR in Asia at the beginning. So most of the AR marketing project was following the previous project in other countries, but the market grew very fast and changes from a follower to become a contributors. People know more about AR and they can have many creative ideas on AR usage nowadays.

From your perspectives, what industries or areas that in use of AR application mostly? And which are the most potential industries in the near future? Can you also share some of your work showcases (say, event interactive experience, campaign site, or mobile app, e-commerce, etc.) to elaborate with us?

Around 50% of the projects are marketing-related, including some exhibition and mobile application. 20% is coming from ecommerce and 30% is product related. Product related means we add value on top of a physical product by using AR. For example, we can enhance a children book with interactive explanation and exercises or it can be simple Greeting Cards for Valentine with an interactive and emotional animation on it . We can even enhance the feature of toys thanks to AR animation. The e-commerce part is increasing and we can see a great demand on that. It is part of our strategy today. Besides AR, cooperate with some major operator for providing customized AR application is also our strategy. For example the cooperation with KDDI in Japan – providing an AR design solution (SATCH) for the content provider to produce customized AR mobile application. We will focus more on mobile too in the future.

DM: You are being successfully selling and marketing the AR to business clients these years. From your experiences, what was the biggest challenge you’ve been face with when selling and marketing AR technology to the business clients?

Ph: There are a number of challenges we got so far for selling AR to the china market.
1) Still many people don’t really understand AR, so we need to explain a lot on that.
2) It’s difficult to recruit the right talent to work on an AR project.. AR is new and not many records can trace back.
3) Asia market is too big and very different. We need to work a lot on localization, make it adopts to different local market
4) Corporate company sometimes is scared to try new thing, but following something which is already existed.

DM: As a worldwide leader in Augmented Reality solutions, what do you think that set Total Immersion apart from other AR technology companies?

Ph: Today we are the leader in Augmented Reality; we are the largest in term of number of people, number of project delivered (2 projects was delivered every day in 2011), amount of revenue. We also got the biggest team on R&D focusing on AR only. We have 6 offices around the world, more than 135 officials Value Added Reseller which are present in 35 countries. We are doing 85% of our revenue in international. Our software platform is the biggest actually on the market which can handle PC/Mac, iPhone, Android, all kind of internet browsers which represent 160 different hardware/software platform. This is unique on the market to have 1 player handling 90% of the digital platform in the world. When a company becomes a partner of TI, he can execute a project for an exhibition with High Definition camera AND an iPhone application AND a PC/Mac based experience with the same DFusion platform from TI. This is amazing! These are all the competitive advantages for us toward other companies. We are now in a process to acquire new dynamic and innovative companies which are working in the AR market. Our competitors may become our friends!

DM: How is Total Immersion Asia Company now? How is the scale of your team? Would you share some of your latest projects in digital marketing and e-commerce fields?

Ph: We have office in Tokyo and Hong Kong, also a subcontractor team in Shanghai. Our team is composing of marketing, sales and professional services people.

DM: Do you have a team working on scientifically research and innovation? What is the percentage ratio that technique professions to others? How do you motivates your team being innovative always?

Ph: Innovation is a day to day process in our company and is part of our DNA. The talent we are recruiting already have this will of innovation in themselves. So, we don’t need to motivate them. But, in the meantime, we need to capture innovative ideas within the company and bring the bests ones to the market. To do so, we organize every month an “Innovation Sharing Session” in which anybody in the company, from the technical engineer to the sales manager, come with his idea and present it to the management team for 20mn. It can be a new feature in the product, a new usage of an existing application or any kind of idea which can bring AR to an other level.

DM: How do you recruit stuff? Is it difficult to find talents in AR-Tech related professions ? Do you accept layman or green hand and grow them up being a professional AR professionals? Share some of your experience/opinions with us please.

Ph: We use specialized headhunter to recruit people, and it takes around 3 months with intensive search to find the right person. We definitely prefer to hire a green hand which has potential and passion in his work than an experienced guy with no growth potential and no passion. We are looking for people who are able to go out of their comfort zone. You know, we have done 600% growth in 2 years in APAC. Only a high potential team can support this huge growth and grow with the company. As an example, we hired a fresh grad engineer 9 months ago to work on different projects. He has done a great job during these 9 months and now, we gave him more responsibility. He is in charge of managing a network of subcontractor which represents the equivalent of 20 engineers.

DM: What’s your plan for Total Immersion Asia in the near future? What will be the biggest challenge you are going to face by your prospective?

Ph: In our 2 years plan, we will expand the China team, open office in Korea and hope to achieve 50% of Total Immersion overall revenue. In order to do that, we will need to strengthen our Strategic Alliances in local region. For example, we have signed a strategic Alliance with KDDI in Japan; Texas Instrument in Italy, Intel, Adobe and eBay in the US. We will probably follow this path in Asian region too.

DM: How about your business in China? As far as we know, Total immersion is working close with China frequently, especially the mainland China Market. How do you see its marketing potentiality?

Ph: The business in China is growing; it represents 30% of the APAC revenue now. We hope it can increase to 50% in the future. China got a lot of potential as e-commerce and mobile ecommerce is also very strong in the market, we already contacting with the major ecommerce players for introducing AR.

DM: Do you have further plan for China? Will you start offices in mainland area?

Ph: Sure, we already got a subcontractor team in Shanghai and we are planning to open our own office there within this year.

DM: Last one, anything or pearls of wisdom would like to share with DamnDigital readers? Please

True innovation changes the way we live. Juniper research estimates that by 2012 there will be 197 million AR capable smartphone on the global market. I believe they didn’t consider the Chinese market in their estimation. This is a call for action to DamnDigital readers to start to work on this promising AR market and find new ideas usage of AR in China. There are rooms for everybody.

DM： It has been a privilege, thanks very much.

Total Immersion官方網站: http://www.t-immersion.cn/

Total Immersion官方Youku視頻空間：http://i.youku.com/u/id_UMjM1Nzg0OTotal Immersion4.html

Total Immersion 微博主頁：http://www.weibo.com/timmersion