Agora x 5Y Capital, RTE2021 Innovation Competition Concludes Successfully
Scene updated, ecosystem thriving.
Real-time engagement (RTE) technology is reshaping our world. On the RTE track, Agora has not only continuously innovated its own products to empower developers, but has also worked to help entrepreneurs build and innovate at lower cost and higher efficiency. As one of Agora's early investors, 5Y Capital hopes to work alongside Agora to discover and empower more innovative companies, making the industry more prosperous.
Last year, Agora and 5Y Capital co-hosted the Real-Time Internet Innovation Challenge, forming meaningful connections with many outstanding entrepreneurs. This year, the partnership returns with an upgraded program: the Supersonic Initiative. The culminating event — the second RTE Innovation Competition — was held on October 23 during Agora's RTE2021 Real-Time Internet Conference.
That day, ten finalist teams from fields including virtual idols, social networking, bionic hearing, AI technology platforms, and optical AR competed fiercely. The voice-based community for young people Qishuier, the enterprise livestreaming platform venue.live, the full-stack virtual human operator Chuanghuan Technology, and the AR optical display technology company Lingxi Micro-Light (tied) claimed the top three spots in the second RTE Innovation Competition. This signals that an ever-growing cohort of pioneering entrepreneurs is breaking new ground in real-time internet, empowering enterprises and developers across the industry. The sub-forum also officially launched the Supersonic Initiative open ecosystem, bringing together diverse ecosystem players to serve as a powerful backbone for emerging RTE innovators. Meanwhile, the Real-Time Engagement Scenario Innovation Ecosystem Report was released the same day.
Image: Innovation sub-forum
Innovation Drives Development
Top Three Teams in the RTE Innovation Competition
Since the RTE2021 agenda was announced, the RTE Innovation Competition final (Startup Demo Day) has drawn considerable attention. As early as August, Agora and 5Y Capital co-hosted the Supersonic Initiative Entrepreneur Camp, screening over 130 applicants down to 20 outstanding startup partners and providing them with technical consulting, VC face-to-face sessions, and other resources and courses. An internal pitch competition in October narrowed the field to eight finalists. These eight Supersonic partners demonstrated high growth potential and distinctive scenario innovation across industry, product form, technology, and market dimensions. The culminating battle of the Supersonic Initiative was this very RTE Innovation Competition.
Notably, two international teams joined the final remotely via Agora Video Call: the voice-based dating app Blink Date and the enterprise livestreaming platform venue.live. Their participation embodied the very meaning of real-time engagement — no matter the distance, people can be connected more closely — and signaled the growing international outlook of the RTE track.
Image: Finalist teams, in presentation order from top to bottom, left to right: Huiye Technology, Social Future, Vland, Jingguan Technology, Chuanghuan Technology, Qishuier, Lingxi Micro-Light, Authing, Blink Date, venue.live
The judging panel that day included Agora founder and CEO Tony Zhao; Qin Liu, founding partner of 5Y Capital; Jixun Foo, global managing partner of GGV Capital; Tian Cheng, founding partner of Shunwei Capital; Kai Liu, partner at 5Y Capital; Zheng Feng, vice president of Shunwei Capital; Shengbot Mao, partner at MiraclePlus; Mu Liu, executive director at Linear Capital; Lin Zhang, executive deputy general manager of Shanghai Yangpu Venture Capital; and Gao Ge, section chief of the Talent Exchange and Development Division at Chaoyang District High-Level Talent Service Center.
Image: Innovation sub-forum
At the final, the all-star panel of judges posed sharp questions, which the contestants answered with composure. Thousands of online and offline viewers witnessed this global real-time engagement competition together. In the end, the voice-based community for young people Qishuier, the enterprise livestreaming platform venue.live, the full-stack virtual human operator Chuanghuan Technology, and the AR optical display technology company Lingxi Micro-Light (tied) claimed the top three honors.
Additionally, Qishuier and the identity cloud platform Authing received special awards from Shanghai Yangpu Knowledge Innovation Zone Investment & Development Co., Ltd. and Beijing Chaoyang Overseas Talent Center respectively, gaining access to talent program policy guidance and other forms of support.
Image: Guests presenting awards to winning teams
At the award ceremony, Agora founder and CEO Tony Zhao noted that this year's entries had relatively clear positioning, with thoughtful development stages and strategies. "We can see that virtual avatars and virtual communities are very active this year, indicating that RTE is gradually occupying a key and fundamental position in the next generation of internet innovation driven by the metaverse concept," he said. The competition itself is just a small stage in an entrepreneurial journey; future growth and success depend more on long-term operations and how founders navigate the process.
Image: Agora founder and CEO Tony Zhao
Qin Liu, founding partner of 5Y Capital, recalled that around 2013, Tony Zhao told us that he believed real-time engagement was the most important driving force in internet development. Today, that vision is gradually becoming reality. Real-time engagement technology is changing our world and the way people connect with each other and the world around them. And this trend isn't limited to China — real-time engagement is a significant driver for global internet development, and Agora's RTE conference is increasingly taking on an international character.
Today, Agora has empowered developers across entertainment, education, IoT, AR/VR, finance, insurance, healthcare, and enterprise collaboration. As one of Agora's early investors, 5Y Capital hopes to work with Agora to discover more innovative companies and make the industry more prosperous.
Image: Qin Liu, founding partner of 5Y Capital
Jixun Foo, global managing partner of GGV Capital, joined as a judge for the first time this year. He found this year's projects full of interesting innovations, with RTE technology finding broader application and more diverse, intriguing scenarios emerging. He looked forward to further exchanges and interactions with more entrepreneurs as the projects develop.
Image: Jixun Foo, global managing partner of GGV Capital
Spanning more than two months, the Supersonic Initiative concluded successfully. The participating entrepreneurs invested valuable time and effort to prove the innovation potential of the RTE track. Going forward, they are expected to go even further on their respective industry paths.
Where Do New RTE Scenarios Come From
That afternoon's Real-Time Engagement Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum began with the launch of the Supersonic Initiative open ecosystem, signaling that co-initiators Agora and 5Y Capital are calling on more ecosystem forces to join in exploring new scenarios, supporting emerging talent, and recognizing new value in real-time engagement.
Image: Supersonic Initiative open ecosystem launch ceremony
The forum also saw the release of the Real-Time Engagement Scenario Innovation Ecosystem Report. Hui Yang, Agora's senior director of startup ecosystem, shared its contents. Starting from the definition of RTE, the report offered a comprehensive interpretation of the track from scenarios to drivers, and provided industry outlooks and recommendations for practitioners, investors, regulators, and other ecosystem partners.
The report identifies four sources of RTE innovation: migration from offline to online with还原 [reduction/translation note: this appears to be a partial word in the original] of the real world, changes in interaction methods and efficiency gains, breakthrough reductions in latency, and advances in AI and virtual reality technology. It predicts that new scenarios will emerge from the convergence of RTE with social networking, collaboration, entertainment, gaming, education, industry, and healthcare.
Image: Six player types in real-time engagement
Based on RTE industry ecosystem structure, the real-time engagement industry can be roughly divided into six categories: general infrastructure players, hardware players, specialized infrastructure players, specialized tool and algorithm players, vertical scenario application players, and scenario ecosystem players. Each category has its own unique way of building moats and its own distinct model for participating in RTE scenario innovation.
The roundtable discussion, moderated by Lu Cao, Agora partner and VP of marketing, was the final session of the day's sub-forum.
On potential new scenarios in the RTE track, Kai Liu, partner at 5Y Capital, observed that compared to last year's finalists, which leaned toward consumer-facing, toC, and education sectors, this year's finalists have moved beyond the internet to focus more on cutting-edge, not-yet-fully-defined directions like the metaverse and virtual idols — directions with more room for imagination. Moreover, while real-time engagement previously skewed toward internet and software, we're now seeing strong applications in hardware and toB, with significant potential.
Image: From left to right: Lu Cao, Agora partner and VP of marketing; Kai Liu, partner at 5Y Capital; Zheng Feng, vice president of Shunwei Capital; Shengbot Mao, partner at MiraclePlus; Gao Ge, section chief of the Talent Exchange and Development Division at Chaoyang District High-Level Talent Service Center
Zheng Feng, vice president of Shunwei Capital, focuses on virtual world video and 3D. He sees real-time engagement evolving through four stages: first, offline behavior moving online; second, digitization plus AI; third, audio-video interaction plus 2D/3D interaction; with the final stage being audio-video interaction plus 2D/3D interaction plus AI.
On the RTE ecosystem, Shengbot Mao, partner at MiraclePlus, described real-time engagement as having two layers: the first transcends space and collaboration, while the second digitizes existence and time. The endgame will be more than a single ecosystem.
Gao Ge, from the government incubation perspective, noted that the real-time engagement ecosystem hinges on talent reserves — addressing concerns about talent development so that companies can devote more energy to market and product.
Finally, all four experts offered advice to entrepreneurs. Liu suggested learning to rely on others' core capabilities to focus on what you do best, depending on mature platforms for technical and market empowerment. Feng said that in real-time engagement scenarios, entrepreneurs need to upgrade their toolkit (real-time engagement, AI, 3D, etc.) and do the hard but right things. Mao believes entrepreneurship requires customer focus, learning to subtract from your business, and having the courage to see the future and get there early. Gao advised that while governments continuously provide empowerment and support, startups must learn to leverage government resources, relationships, and policy support effectively.
5Y Capital (formerly Morningside Venture Capital) currently manages approximately RMB 32 billion in USD and RMB dual-currency funds. 5Y Capital seeks out, supports, and inspires lone entrepreneurs, providing support from spiritual encouragement to full operational assistance. We believe that if the "crazy you" in others' eyes begins to be believed in, the world will become a different place.
BEIJING · SHANGHAI · SHENZHEN · HONG KONG
