MyVR social virtual reality platform debuts in October

To succeed, virtual reality is going to have to get a lot more social. A new startup called MyWebRoom hopes to make that happen with its social VR platform, MyVR. Launching in October, MyVR will bring together content discovery, social interactions, video, chat, and more in what it is calling a totally immersive experience.

If mainstream consumers adopt VR, it could very well live up to expectations that it will be a $30 billion industry by 2020 (according to estimates by tech advisor Digi-Capital).

San Francisco-based MyWebRoom lets people create interactive, customizable “rooms” as their personal hubs. Consumers can easily discover, save, stream, and share online content — including news articles, music, and videos. This content is organized across 21 targeted interest feeds, such as travel, sports, DIY, and food, all of which are also fully customizable.

Free with Google Cardboard and Samsung GearVR, MyVR lets users follow anyone else using the app, visit each other’s virtual rooms, and hold group voice chats — all while browsing the web, watching videos, reading articles, or listening to music together.

“The current virtual reality market is focused heavily on games and 360-degree videos, so the majority of people who are using VR right now are gamers and early adopters,” said Artem Fedyaev, CEO of MyWebRoom and creator of MyVR, in a statement. “The goal of MyVR is to bring virtual reality to a wider, more mainstream audience that wants a broader range of virtual experiences.”

When new users get started, they can design an interactive virtual room to use as their profile and select different items in the room to access different feeds of content — such as selecting the TV to watch viral videos or the music player to listen to their favorite songs.

Rivals include IMVU. Fedyaev started the company with John Gonzalez.