Right this second, the world’s biggest technology companies are freaking out.
You’d think that corporate titans like Google, Facebook, and Apple would be calm in the face of a storm. But as it turns out, that’s not the case.
You see, these companies recently caught a glimpse of the future—and now, in a high-stakes fight to get there before their competitors, they’re frantically spending billions of dollars.
But you know what we say? We say let ’em fight:
There’s no need for you to jump into the fray. And there’s no need to wrack your brain trying to figure out who the ultimate winner will be.
Just pull up a chair…
Because their actions can lead you to monster-sized profits.
The “Next Big Thing”
The glimpse of the future we’re referring to took place on September 5, 2012.
That’s the day a strange little technology start-up completed its “crowdfunding” campaign on Kickstarter.
The campaign had been an unexpected success. It had quickly raised more than $2 million, which was nearly 10 times its goal.
But what came next was an even bigger surprise:
Eighteen months later, Facebook [NASDAQ: FB] bought the start-up for $2 billion.
Just like that, Silicon Valley’s “next big thing” was crowned—and just like that, Facebook’s competitors took out their wallets and prepared for battle.
“Game on” with the Oculus
As you may have figured out by now, that strange little company was Oculus.
Oculus makes a “Virtual Reality” headset called the Rift.
Virtual Reality (or “VR”) is the creation of an artificial environment. But because the technology is so robust, users get the sense that it’s real.
Here’s what the Rift looks like:
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, believes that virtual reality is the next big thing. And with his $2 billion bet on Oculus, he’s putting his money where his mouth is.
As he wrote about the Rift, “When you put it on, you enter a completely immersive computer-generated environment, like a game or a movie scene or a place far away. The incredible thing about the technology is that you feel like you're actually present in another place with other people.”
For Facebook’s competitors, these words and actions were a wake-up call.
Google [NASDAQ: GOOG], for example, had been sniffing around the virtual reality space for a while. (Remember its funky-looking glasses, “Google Glass”? Glass offered users “augmented reality,” a way to add virtual elements to the real world.)
But now that Facebook had thrown down the gauntlet, Google quickly formed a division 100% dedicated to virtual reality.
Already, Google has gotten impressive early traction with a $15 VR headset called “Cardboard.” (Wayne recently wrote about Cardboard here ».) But to ensure that it’s staked out a strong enough position in this new world, now it’s going further:
Over the weekend, The Financial Times reported that Google is developing a new-and-improved version of Cardboard “as it challenges Facebook’s Oculus for an early lead in Silicon Valley’s latest platform war.”
But that’s not all: just last week, Google invested in an augmented reality start-up called Magic Leap. In total, Google has now invested more than half a billion dollars into this start-up. (Shockingly, Magic Leap is already valued at $4.5 billion, despite the fact that it’s years away from having a product ready to sell.)
Meanwhile, other tech giants just keep piling on:
Sony [NYSE: SNE] plans to launch a VR headset this year (and with over 120 million PlayStation consoles already in the market, it could ramp up rapidly)…
Microsoft [NASDAQ: MSFT] is working on a breakthrough VR technology called HoloLens. Former CEO Steve Ballmer calls HoloLens “essential” to Microsoft’s future…
Just yesterday, Amazon [NASDAQ: AMZN] released a “game engine” called Lumberyard that can be used for building VR games…
And as The Financial Times recently reported, Apple [NASDAQ: AAPL] just built an entire “secret team” to lead it into virtual reality battle.
With all this capital and effort being deployed, it’s clear that the world’s leading tech giants believe VR is the next big thing…
But now we get to the big question:
How do you profit from all this?
Follow the Leader—But Don’t Invest in It
If you’re looking for profit opportunities in this emerging sector, you might be tempted to invest in one of the big tech companies we’ve already mentioned…
But that wouldn’t be a path to capture monster-sized profits.
Facebook, Google, Sony, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple…
Each of these companies is already a diversified, multi-billion dollar business. So it’s unlikely that any of their recent VR efforts will result in a significant near-term run-up in their stock price.
Here’s what you need to do instead…
Ground Floor
To reap big profits from this emerging sector, you need to invest in VR-focused companies when they’re still at the “ground floor.”
You can find these ground-floor opportunities on equity crowdfunding platforms like the ones we cover at Crowdability. These platforms allow you to buy an ownership stake in a start-up company for just a few hundred or few thousand dollars.
These start-ups have the potential to become Facebook’s next $2 billion acquisition. They even have the potential to become the next Facebook or Microsoft themselves.
Over the next few weeks, we’re going to introduce you to a number of ways Virtual Reality technology could change your life…
And ultimately, we’ll show you how Virtual Reality could change your net worth.
Best Regards,
Founder
Crowdability.com
