Amsterdam firm to bring VR Cinemas to China

China is following Amsterdam's example and will soon be opening virtual reality cinemas. Chinese electronics retailer Gome Group is soon opening 100 VR cinemas, modeled after The VR Cinema in Amsterdam, and teaming up with Amsterdam startup &Samhoud Media as distributor of VR films, the Financieele Dagblad reports.

Virtual Reality lets users see a simulated world in 360 degrees through special glasses. This makes for exciting movies, as watchers can see from all sides.

Gome Group will build the VR cinemas, that will cary the same name as the Amsterdam cinema, in its stores in China. They hope to have the first five - in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Shenyang - ready and operating by late December.

Amsterdam startup &Samhoud Media will help Gome Group with VR movies acting as distributor. The startup buys virtual reality films from producers and will give broadcast rights to Gome Group, for a percentage of the ticket price - between 30 and 60 percent to be exact, according to the company.

&Samhoud Media opened the world's first permanent virtual reality cinema in Amsterdam in February. So far the VR Cinema attracted some 60 thousand tourists. One of them was Chinese business man Bin Gu, who was so impressed that he arranged a meeting between teh Amsterdam startup and Gome Group. This eventually led to the cooperation between the two companies, according to the newspaper.

"I am convinced that virtual reality is the future", Gu said to FD. "It's going to change our lives."