Augmented reality web is a trend that is gradually imposing itself in the market. As a company focused on webAR, from Onirix it is necessary that we know and gets involved in various types of projects and sectors, from tourism and culture, through marketing and advertising, and even applying innovations in the industrial and digitization sector.

Web AR, as we have already explained in previous posts on our blog, is a term that refers to the union of the concept of “web” with that of Augmented Reality (AR). This term is used to refer to any AR project or experience that is run from a web browser on our mobile phone: Chrome or Safari mainly.

Global and mobile augmented reality market volume

The webAR makes it possible to simplify the consumption of content by the user, in addition to facilitating the way to share it with other consumers immediately. This coupled with the fact that the user is more and more accustomed to seeing and consuming QR codes, makes the potential of this technology begin to grow in a remarkable way.

According to the most recent figures from various sources, the size of the mobile augmented reality market is expected to reach close to $ 30 billion by 2025 (its global market figure has been about $ 21 billion in 2021). Although Web AR technology is still in its early stages, it has stimulated monumental growth in the last year and has enormous potential. The size of the global AR market in 2019 was $ 849 million, great news, but not as good as what is expected to be seen in the coming years. If we look at the global AR market, there are experts who point out that this technology could reach a quota of more than $ 350,000 million by 2028.

Cultural experiences and digitized tourist maps

It is one of the sectors where augmented reality begins to settle so more and more naturally. Tourists and visitors are increasingly used to having digital tools that provide information on their cultural experiences, both in public and private entities. From routes with various points of interest in a city, to specific and high-quality content in museums or exhibition centres.

The use of the AR web is especially useful in these environments since it is much easier to access, consume, and share with other people. From a QR code next to each work, to a web link with an online map on the website of the city council. Everything adds extra value so that the visit is unforgettable and loaded with relevant content.

Digital marketing and experiential advertising: impact and gamification for the consumer

One of the main sectors where the use of web augmented reality is being applied is undoubtedly the digital marketing and advertising sector. Thanks to augmented reality, a new interactive and powerful communication channel can be created with the end consumer. The problem with this technology is that there has always been excessive friction with the end user, since each campaign, product, or experience required a specific mobile application to download, learn to use and process.

Thanks to augmented reality, access to an experience is now immediate, as simple as opening a link in an email, social network or website of the company that wants to launch a product or advertise an event:

In addition, other dynamics associated with the brand can be built that generate great value for the product and for the consumer. Gamified experiences that offer entertainment and loyalty, and report new users, registrations, and prospects for the campaign generator. A clear example is the realization of the so-called Treasure Hunts in different locations, generating points that the consumer can exchange for discounts, or directly for cash prizes:

Web AR in the retail sector: more traffic, more sales, more conversion.

More and more are being bought online than physically, from the mobile phone, with technological tools that facilitate access to the final product. Augmented reality is one more piece of a huge puzzle that moves billions a year. The buyer becomes familiar with a purchase process where he can view the product in a realistic way, configure it, test it, and in some way this translates into drastically reducing the decision-making time in the purchase process. From shoes, furniture, or even dishes from your favorite restaurant:

It is increasingly common for large brands to have their product catalog online, in augmented reality, and that it is easy to access them from a web link. In addition, this provides a powerful tool to the retailer, generating traffic data and statistics, in real time, on the areas where their products are viewed more, for longer, and more frequently. This, together with the previous example of marketing, makes webAR position itself as one of the main tools to be included in future digitization processes of the sector.

Already in 2018, in a study carried out in the United Kingdom, it was established that the conversion rate in sales was 3 times higher when it was carried out through the mobile web. This, together with the fact that the adoption of AR on mobile phones has been growing more than 70% annually from that year to the present, and that it is expected to continue growing significantly, only augurs well for a very promising future for the webAR in the industry for years to come.

The digitization of the industry: operator-machine communication, efficiency improvement.

The industrial sector is one of the main sectors where augmented reality has been applied in recent years. The process of digitizing operation, maintenance, review or repair, or security tasks is one of the main objectives of large corporations. Digitization through technologies such as AR allows to reduce times in the day to day, and therefore make the operator more efficient in his work. Thanks to augmented reality, continuous help can be offered to the operator so that he can interact with his immediate environment, in which case it is usually quite complex, with a multitude of options and possibilities, which AR simplifies him, and helps him make better and faster decisions.

Not all industry cases are easily transferable to the web, due to the complexity of the cases, the need for very precise interaction, or even the lack of access to mobile data. But there are casuistry where access to web experiences is a reality, and where this technology greatly facilitates the adaptation of this type of improvement in the worker’s tasks.

AR in training and education: visual and updated content.

A sector that is completely transversal to many others is that of training and education, a basic pillar of our society. Education, at all levels, cannot be left behind in any process of improvement and digitization, innovation and continuous renewal. That is why it is a sector in which there are many contents and experiences where web AR can incredibly help the student to understand concepts.

The fact that digitization is a reality does not mean that physical resources, textbooks, manuals, and other types of learning support continue to exist. Thanks to augmented reality, what can be done is to evolve these elements, and give them a new dimension, and even associate them with content that may change over time, and be updated:

Another really interesting concept is to provide a way to interact with the entire physical space, and thus offer high-value manuals for the student, for a worker, or even for anyone who wants to learn a process visually, in less time:

This last example is a case where augmented reality web cannot be applied for now, since it is Spatial AR. Anyway, it is a clue of what we seek to do from Onirix, to evolve our technology in such a way that in a few years, we can enjoy experiences as complex and precise as these, from our web browsers, simply by accessing a link, or for example, from a QR code installed on the engine of our car.