This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(March 2021) |
Formerly | Vrse |
---|---|
Company type | Subsidiary |
Industry | Virtual reality |
Founded | 2014 |
Founders | |
Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
Key people | Chris Milk (CEO) Aaron Koblin (CTO) |
Products | Supernatural |
Parent | Meta Platforms |
Website | with |
This article is part of a series about |
Meta Platforms |
---|
Products and services |
People |
Business |
Within Unlimited, Inc, or commonly Within, [1] is a studio based in Los Angeles developing the VR fitness service Supernatural on the Meta Quest. The company was founded by Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin in 2014 and initially created, acquired, and distributed 360-degree video, AR, and VR experiences across web, mobile, console, and headsets. The company was acquired by Meta Platforms, Inc., in February 2023. [2]
Originally named Vrse, [3] Within was founded in 2014 by Chris Milk, and Aaron Koblin, creator of Google’s Data Arts team. [4] The company has produced and distributed some of augmented and virtual reality's most seminal works, including Clouds Over Sidra, in partnership with the United Nations (2015), Lambchild Superstar (2017), co-directed by Milk and OK Go's Damien Kulash, [5] and the children's augmented reality reading app, Wonderscope (2018). In April 2020, after 2 years in development, Within released Supernatural, an in-home fitness, health, and wellness service for virtual reality, which combines real-life trainers with rhythm mapped exercises set in beautiful locations. In 2020, Within was named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies [6] and Supernatural was named "Best App" in Fast Company's 2020 Innovation by Design Awards.
In October 2021, Meta Platforms, Inc., agreed to buy Within for an undisclosed amount. [7] In July 2022, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued Meta to block the acquisition arguing that "Meta could have chosen to try to compete. Instead, it chose to buy." [8] [7] In February 2023, the FTC lost its case against Meta in federal court, allowing Meta to acquire the company. [9] [7] The acquisition completed the following week, [10] and the FTC announced it would cancel an administrative proceeding against the acquisition later in the same month. [11]
In October 2022, Within sold the Wonderscope app to Amira Learning for an undisclosed amount. [12] In February 2023, the Within app shut down "to focus exclusively on building Supernatural". [13]
On June 16, 2016, Within rebranded from Vrse and raised a $12.65 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from 21st Century Fox, WME, Tribeca Enterprises, [14] [15] [16] Annapurna Pictures, Vice and Freelands Ventures. [16] Current investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Temasek, Emerson Collective, 21st Century Fox, Raine Ventures, WME, Live Nation, Vice Media, Tribeca Enterprises, Annapurna Pictures, and Legendary Pictures.
In 2017, Within announced raising $40 million in Series B round of funding led by Temasek and Emerson Collective including funding from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, 21st Century Fox and Raine Ventures, and new investors WPP and Macro Ventures. [17]
In 2016, Within (known as VRSE at the time) showed roughly 1,200 attendees a synced 360-degree video collage at a TED Talk. [18]
Within was named [19] the "Number 1"- VR app for iOS by Apple Insider, featured [19] as "Best New App" on iTunes and was the most downloaded and highest rated [20] cinematic VR app for Google Cardboard.
Within VR films were selected [21] for the Tribeca Film Festival and chosen [16] for the Sundance Film Festival, respectively, in both 2015 and 2016. Within film, "The Displaced", won [22] the Most Next Award at the 2016 AICP Awards [23] and the 2016 Cannes Lions Grand Prix in the Entertainment category. [24] Within Founder Chris Milk’s SNL40 VR special won the Best Online Film & Video Award at the 2016 Webby Awards. Milk’s "Clouds Over Sidra" won the Interactive Category at the 2015 Sheffield Doc/Fest Awards. [25] In 2020 Within was named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies. [26] Within's Supernatural won "Best App" in Fast Company's 2020 Innovation by Design Awards. [27]
Marc Lowell Andreessen is an American businessman and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser with a graphical user interface; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He co-founded and later sold the software company Opsware to Hewlett-Packard. Andreessen is also a co-founder of Ning, a company that provides a platform for social networking websites and an inductee in the World Wide Web Hall of Fame. Andreessen's net-worth is estimated at $1.7 billion.
Chris Milk is an American entrepreneur, innovator, director, photographer, and immersive artist. He is co-founder and CEO of Within, a virtual reality technology company, and co-founder of Here Be Dragons, a virtual reality production company. Milk began his career directing music videos and commercials for leading artists and brands, and in subsequent years became best known for bridging the gap between emerging technologies and new mediums for storytelling.
Chris Dixon is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is a general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and previously worked at eBay. He is also the co-founder and former CEO of Hunch. He was #1 on the Midas List in 2022. Dixon is known as a cryptocurrency and Web3 evangelist.
Aaron Koblin is an American digital media artist and entrepreneur best known for his innovative use of data visualization and his pioneering work in crowdsourcing, virtual reality, and interactive film. He is co-founder and president of virtual reality company Within, founded with Chris Milk. Formerly he created and lead the Data Arts Team at Google in San Francisco, California from 2008 to 2015.
nDreams is a company that develops and publishes video games. Based in Farnborough, Hampshire, UK, it was formed in August 2006 by former SCi and Eidos creative director, Patrick O'Luanaigh.
Facebook F8 is a mostly-annual conference held by Meta Platforms since 2007, intended for developers and entrepreneurs who build products and services around the website. The event has generally started with a keynote speech by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, followed by various breakout sessions concentrating on specific topics. Facebook has often introduced new features and made new announcements at the conference.
Andreessen Horowitz is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. As of April 2023, Andreessen Horowitz ranks first on the list of venture capital firms by assets under management, with $35 billion as of March 2022.
Leap Motion, Inc. was an American company that manufactured and marketed a computer hardware sensor device that supports hand and finger motions as input, analogous to a mouse, but requires no hand contact or touching. In 2016, the company released new software designed for hand tracking in virtual reality. The company was sold to the British company Ultrahaptics in 2019, which rebranded the two companies under the new name Ultraleap.
Reality Labs, originally Oculus VR, is a business and research unit of Meta Platforms that produces virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software, including virtual reality headsets such as Quest, and online platforms such as Horizon Worlds. In June 2022, several artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives that were previously a part of Meta AI were transitioned to Reality Labs. This also includes Meta's fundamental AI Research laboratory FAIR which is now part of the Reality Labs - Research (RLR) division.
"Song for Someone" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the fourth track from their thirteenth studio album, Songs of Innocence, and was released as its third single on 11 May 2015. It was produced by Ryan Tedder and Flood. Lyrically, "Song for Someone" is a love song dedicated by lead vocalist Bono to his wife Ali.
Zach Richter is an American director, creative director and designer, best known for his work in virtual reality and interactive media.
Secret Location was a multi-Emmy award winner and Cannes Lion Award winning content studio across web, mobile, tablet and platforms such as Virtual and Augmented Reality, based in Toronto and LA.
FoxNext, LLC was a virtual reality and theme park unit of 20th Century Fox, now known as 20th Century Studios. It was established in 2017 prior to Disney's acquisition of Fox and operated under the Disney Parks, Experiences and Products unit of The Walt Disney Company. It handled the development and publishing of virtual reality and augmented reality titles, as well as the development of 20th Century Studios's theme and amusement parks. The division's president was Salil Mehta, a former executive from NBCUniversal and The Walt Disney Company, who has been with Fox since 2013 and later returned to Disney after Disney acquired Fox in 2019 until on January 23, 2020, when the company's gaming assets were sold to Scopely.
A virtual reality game or VR games is a video game played on virtual reality (VR) hardware. Most VR games are based on player immersion, typically through head-mounted display unit or headset with stereoscopic displays and one or more controllers.
Rec Room is a virtual reality massively multiplayer online game with an integrated game creation system, initially released in 2016. It is available on Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PSVR, Meta Quest, Pico, iOS, and Android.
Meta Platforms, Inc., doing business as Meta, and formerly named Facebook, Inc., and TheFacebook, Inc., is an American multinational technology conglomerate based in Menlo Park, California. The company owns and operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp, among other products and services. Meta ranks among the largest American information technology companies, alongside other Big Five corporations Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. The company was ranked #31 on the Forbes Global 2000 ranking in 2023.
The Quest 2 is a virtual reality (VR) headset developed by Reality Labs, a division of Meta Platforms. It was unveiled on September 16, 2020, and released on October 13, 2020 as the Oculus Quest 2. It was then rebranded as the Meta Quest 2 in 2022, as part of a company-wide phase-out of the Oculus brand following the rebranding of Facebook, Inc. as Meta.
Federal Trade Commission v. Meta Platforms, Inc. is an ongoing antitrust court case brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Facebook parent company Meta Platforms. The lawsuit alleges that Meta has accumulated monopoly power via anti-competitive mergers, with the suit centering on the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.
Meta Horizon Worlds is an online virtual reality game with an integrated game creation system developed and published by Meta Platforms. On this multi-player virtual platform, players move and interact with each other in various worlds that host events, games, and social activities. The game works on Oculus Rift S, Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 3 headsets.