The Huffington Post buys 360 ° video studio

A new takeover in the American media sphere has merged the RYOT 360 ° video studio and the Huffington Post. The AOL group, of which the site is part, is banking on a future where information will be transmitted in virtual reality.

AOL's branch, Verizon Communications Inc., has announced the purchase of RYOT Corp for between $ 10 million and $ 15 million. This company specializes in the production of 360 ° video. According to the Wall Street Journal, this acquisition will allow the group to integrate a new way of communicating information into its media. The American newspaper also analyzes this purchase as a strategic choice for the future. Facebook, Youtube and Snapchat have a project where we have already started to broadcast this type of videos. Mark Zuckerberg sees this format as the future of Facebook, this idea even pushed the tycoon of the web bought the virtual reality company Oculus Rift.

In AOL's media portfolio are specialist media such as TechCrunch and Engadget. But the band's crown jewel is the US version of the Huffington Post. RYOT and the Huff Post had collaborated in the past on the documentary "The Crossing" in virtual reality that followed the refugee crisis in Greece. Ryot now takes the name of HuffPost RYOT. AOL also plans to use the production company to make videos for brands and NGOs. RYOT's main source of revenue is the production of videos for large corporations.

The motivations for this takeover are therefore twofold. The group uses a technology that is likely to constitute the future of information. The media wants to become a pioneer in a new way of transmitting information in a more lively way. With time, virtual reality will become more democratic and its applications with. Taking into account the emotional load of virtual reality, the impact of such an information format on large sections of the population remains an open question.