Despite Little Usage, New York Times Puts Its Virtual Reality-Based News Coverage on Front Page

Yesterday, I went to the New York Times' website, saw this right on the very top, and simultaneously said "Ughh" and "Whoa" out loud:

"Whoa", because from a certain point of view, it's truly impressive that virtual reality is not only being featured on the front page of the world's most important news outlet, the paper itself is using the technology as part of its reporting of crucial current events -- a major milestone in virtual reality adoption.

"Ugh" because despite this prominent promotion, there's a small problem: Hardly any of New York Times' readers are actually using the New York Times' VR app.

Seriously:

The Times has tens of millions of readers, but according to Google Play, the NYT VR app has only been installed 100,000-500,000 times. (This despite the fact that Google's shipped 5 million units of the Google Cardboard VR viewer, which works with the NYT's app.) On App Annie, the analytics service, the app doesn't even register among Google Play's top 1000 apps (after a brief appearance at the top during its November launch), suggesting little viral or organic growth. Despite being frequently promoted on, you know, the world's most influential news site.

All of which reminds of Reuters' failed virtual reality experiment in Second Life, and what I wrote when the NYT announced its program last October:

This move means the New York Times is implicitly assuming that virtual reality is a scalable mass market product, when that's actually still very much an open question that should be covered by august news outlets... like the New York Times. But instead of asking the hard questions that another virtual reality hype wave requires, the world's most respected news outlet is becoming part of that hype, and will likely become a proof point other news outlets will reference. (Just as Reuters' Second Life bureau became a key part of SL's hype wave.) Of course virtual reality is the next big thing, reporters everywhere will think -- after all, the New York Times pretty much said so!

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Comments

[Iggy]

Delighted to see you in the skeptics camp on this. VR enjoys some sort of future, but is that the gnashing of teeth I hear in the distance?

Same sound I heard in 2008, when the hype wave for SL crested.