Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Influencers

Delivered August 12th, 2019. Contributors: Neema and

Early FindingsVirtual Reality and Augmented Reality Influencers

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Top VR and AR Influencers: Part 1

A list of top 10 virtual reality and augmented reality influencers in the US has been compiled in the attached spreadsheet. The list includes Clay Bavor, Eva Hoerth, Ian Hamilton, Amber Osborne, Cathy Hackl, Ryan A Bell, Manuel Clément, Ben Lang, Daniel Brittman, and Rob Crasco. 
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FINDINGSClay Bavor  Clay Bavor is the VP of Virtual and Augmented Reality Division at Google. He posts about AR & VR on his social media accounts and personal blog and has 29.1k followers on Twitter. 
Eva Hoerth  Eva Hoerth is a Seattle based experienced VR design researcher and community builder with over 3 years working in the field. Along with her team, she's currently building an online platform where creators, researchers, and communities can connect using VR and AR to solve problems and share insights. Eva has 14.9K followers on Twitter and 175 subscribers on YouTube. 
Ian Hamilton  Ian Hamilton is the Managing Editor for UploadVR.com. He focuses his journalism on AR and VR and his twitter account is an independent source of information to learn about this immersive, emerging industry. 
Amber Osborne  Amber Osborne is the CMO at Doghead Simulations, a VR software company. She's also involved in thought leadership within the virtual reality and technology industries, speaking at events and content writing for online industry publications. Osborne has 4,330 followers on Instagram, 41.5K on Twitter and 135 Subscribers on YouTube. 
Ryan A Bell  Ryan Bell was formerly a creative consultant at VRScout and recognized as a strong influencer in the VR community. He has 61.3K followers on Twitter, and 4,548 followers on Instagram.
Manuel Clément  Manuel Clément is a Senior AR and VR UX Designer and Prototyper on Daydream at Google. He builds immersive prototypes at Google and is passionate about teaching children about programming and electronics. He has 7,069 followers on Twitter and 729 subscribers on YouTube. 
 
RESEARCH STRATEGYTo identify the top VR and AR influencers in the US, we searched through industry reports for a pre-compiled list of the top influencers in the areas. We were able to find a list of top VR influencers published by Izea.com, BrioVR, eCampusnews and Onalytica, then, we scanned through the list for influencers with more than 5k followers and those mentioned in more than two publications as top influencers in VR/AR.

Next, we searched for the social media platforms the influencers use. We combed through their websites (where available) and their profiles on Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Twitter. Some listed influencers don't have a Twitch account and accounts on some requested social media platforms, in those cases, we have left the corresponding column blank and for some influencers, a direct contact information could not be provided as it wasn't publicly available on their social platforms and third-party sites like Hunter.io. In those cases, we have provided a link to their LinkedIn profile through which they could be contacted.

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Top VR and AR Influencers: Part 2

As requested, an additional 10 VR/AR influencers have been provided in the attached spreadsheet. The influencers include Kent Bye, Sanem Avcil, Malia Probst, John Carmack, Tipatat Chennavasin, Sarah Hill, Dean Takahashi, Chet Faliszek, Karissa Bell, Hugo Barra and Ryan Watt.
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FINDINGSKent Bye  Kent Bye conducts VR podcasts interview on his website called voices of VR. He has conducted over 1,200 Voices of VR podcast interviews featuring the pioneering artists, storytellers, and technologists driving the resurgence of virtual & augmented reality. He has 22,000 followers on Twitter, 816 on YouTube and 925 on Instagram. 
Sanem Avcil  Sanem Avcil is one of the top 10 AR/VR influencers, she also holds an Initial Coin Offering Advisory position in multiple companies and is skilled in Blockchain, ICO, Initial Coin Offerings, Cryptocurrency, Investment, Advisory, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, among others. She has 61.3K followers on Twitter, 11,000 followers on Instagram and 11,044 subscribers on YouTube. [7] 
Malia Probst  Malia Probst is the host of VRScout Report, a weekly live video show and podcast discussing the best in VR, host of Real Virtual Show and a founding partner at VRScout. [1] [11]. She has 11.6K followers on Twitter. [10] 
John Carmack John Carmack is the CTO of Oculus, makers of Oculus Rift; a virtual reality system. John Carmack is one of the top influencers in the areas of AR/VR. He has 861k followers on Twitter.
Tipatat Chennavasin  Tipatat Chennavasin is a regular contributor to publications and industry events on VR. He is a VR/AR industry spokesperson and thought leader, an advisor to Tokyo VR Startups and General Partner and Co-founder of the VR Fund. He has 1,923 followers on Instagram, and 19.4K on Twitter.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
To identify the top VR and AR influencers in the US, we searched through industry reports for a pre-compiled list of the top influencers in the areas. We were able to find a list of top VR influencers published by Izea.com, BrioVR, eCampusnews and Onalytica, then, we scanned through the list for influencers with more than 5k followers and those mentioned in more than two publications as top influencers in VR/AR. 
 
Next, we searched for the social media platforms the influencers use. We combed through their websites (where available) and their profiles on Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Twitter. Some listed influencers don't have a Twitch account and account on some requested social media platforms, in those cases, we have left the corresponding column blank and for some influencers, direct contact information could not be provided as it wasn't publicly available on their social platforms and third-party sites like Hunter.io. In those cases, we have provided a link to their LinkedIn profile through which they could be contacted. 

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Top VR and AR Influencers: Part 3

On the attached spreadsheet, an additional list of 10 top AR/VR influencers has been provided. The list includes Vanessa Radd, Tom Emrich, Brad Waid, Monica Burns, Timothy Gentry, Ambarish Mitra, Dr Rafael Grossman, Arshya Vahabzadeh, Daniel Newman, and Chris Madsen.
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FINDINGS Vanessa Radd  Vanessa Radd is the President of the VR/AR Association Singapore, a founding member of XR Alliance, and founder of the VR/AR Women in Asia Society. She is one of the top global augmented reality influencers. She has 5,723 followers on Twitter, 117 on Instagram and 5 subscribers on YouTube.  
Tom Emrich  Tom Emrich is recognized as one of the top leaders in augmented reality, virtual reality and wearables technology. He’s a top augmented reality influencer and listed as an AR pioneer to watch alongside leaders from Apple, Snap, Facebook, Magic Leap and Microsoft. He has 5,017 followers on Instagram, 21.2K followers on Twitter, and 5 subscribers on YouTube.   
Brad Waid  Brad Waid is recognized as one of the top global influencers in emerging tech and augmented reality. He regularly acts as a keynote speaker for AR conferences and offers a list of recommended AR apps on his website. He has 2,200 followers on Instagram, and 41.1K followers on Twitter. 
Monica Burns  Monica Burns is an ed-tech and curriculum consultant. Her Twitter and blog posts are filled with tutorials on using AR and advanced technology in the classroom. She has 55.8K followers on Twitter, 4,930 on Instagram and 19 subscribers on YouTube.
Timothy Gentry  Timothy Gentry regularly tweets about companies using augmented reality and the future of the technology. He was recognized as one of the top AR influencers in 2017. He has 12.5K followers on Twitter and 2 subscribers on YouTube. 
RESEARCH STRATEGYTo identify the top VR and AR influencers in the US, we searched through industry reports for a pre-compiled list of the top influencers in the areas. We were able to find a list of top VR influencers published by Izea.com, BrioVR, eCampusnews and Onalytica. Then, we scanned through the list for influencers with more than 5k followers. We chose the influencers that were mentioned in more than two publications.

Next, we searched for the social media platforms the influencers use. We combed through their websites (where available) and their profiles on Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Twitter. Some listed influencers didn't have a Twitch account. In those cases, we have left the corresponding column blank. Additionally, for some influencers, direct contact information could not be provided as it wasn't publicly available on their social platforms and third-party sites like Hunter.io. In those cases, we have provided a link to their LinkedIn profile through which they could be contacted.

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Top VR and AR Influencers: Part 4

Nathaniel de Jong, David Jagneaux, Rikard Steiber, Job J Stauffer, Charlie Fink, Vladimir Ilic, Liv Erickson, Helen Situ, Jenn Duong, and Jazmin Cano are 10 additional top VR/AR influencers based in the U.S. The findings can be found in the attached spreadsheet. 
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FINDINGS Nathaniel de Jong  Nathaniel is the CEO of Nathie Media, he reviews VR games, apps and experiences and has a YouTube channel where he creates videos regarding VR. He has 12.2K followers on Twitter, 2,368 on Instagram, and 519,293 subscribers on YouTube.
David Jagneaux  David Jagneaux is a Senior Editor at UploadVR, one of the leading VR/AR focused media publications. He's a contributor at IGN, PCGamer and Gamecrate and recognized as one of the top VR/AR influencers. He has 4,850 followers on Twitter, 63 subscribers on YouTube and 561 followers on Instagram.  
Rikard Steiber  Rikard Steiber is recognized as one of the top VR/AR influencers. He is the President of Viveport and Senior Vice President of Virtual Reality at HTC and describes himself as "Virtual Reality evangelist". Steiber has a total of 13,147 followers across Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. 
Job J Stauffer  Job J Stauffer is the Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Orpheus, a company that specializes in VR gaming. He mostly tweets about VR and games and is recognized by Onalytica as one of the Top 50 Most Influential voices in the field of VR. 
Charlie Fink Charlie Fink is an AR/VR consultant, and former Disney, AOL, and AG Interactive executive who now writes about immersive technologies for Forbes. He is an author of several AR-enabled books and has spoken on AR/VR related events. He has 53 subscribers on YouTube, 1,075 followers on Instagram and 8,190 followers on Twitter. 
Jazmin Cano  Jazmin Cano is a 3D modelling and texture artist, and advocates for the future of social VR. She is also involved with the empowerment of women in VR. She is currently the VR User Engagement Officer at High Fidelity, a company dedicated to creating an open platform for social VR.
RESEARCH STRATEGYTo identify the top VR and AR influencers in the US, we searched through industry reports for a publicly available list of the top influencers in the areas. We were able to find lists of top VR influencers published by Izea.com, BrioVR, eCampusnews and Onalytica. Then, we scanned through the lists for influencers with more than 5,000 followers and those mentioned in more than two publications as top influencers in VR/AR.

Next, we searched for the social media platforms the influencers use. We combed through their websites (where available) and their profiles on Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Twitter. Some influencers do not have a accounts on some of the requested social media platforms. In those cases, we have left the corresponding column blank. In addition, for some influencers, direct contact information could not be provided as it wasn't publicly available on their social platforms and third-party sites like Hunter.io. In those cases, we have provided a link to their LinkedIn profile through which they can be contacted.

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Top VR and AR Influencers: Part 5

As requested, an additional list of top 10 VR and AR influencers have been provided in the attached spreadsheet. The list includes Alex Schwartz, Brandon J Laatsch, Jonathan Nafarette, Bruce Wooden, Palmer Luckey, Ori Inbar, John Bucher, Nick Pettit, Daniel Bury, and Brendan Iribe.
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FINDINGSAlex Schwartz Alex Schwartz is the Founder and CEO of VR studio Owlchemy Labs, which created Oculus Touch, PlayStation VR and Rick and Morty VR. He has also Co-founded various developer community groups like VR Austin and has spoken in various VR related conferences around the world. He's active on Twitter and has 7,803 followers.
Brandon LaatschBrandon Laatsch specializes in VR gaming and is the creator of the Node channel and YouTube channel where he plays VR games to his audience. On his Twitter account, he posts about VR related contents and was named among the top 25 VR influencers in 2018 by Disruptor Daily. He has 73.2K followers on Twitter, 25 on Instagram  and 1.1 million subscribers on YouTube. 
Jonathan Nafarette  Jonathan Nafarette is the Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief at VRScout and considers himself a pioneer of mixed reality capture and live drive animation. He has 1,947 subscribers on YouTube, 72.8K followers on Twitter, and 17.1K on Instagram. 
Bruce Wooden Bruce Wooden is the head developer and community relations at Altspace. Altspace is a virtual reality interactive communication platform and leader in the VR space. He is an active evangelist in VR and co-founded Silicon Valley Virtual Reality. Wooden is also a contributing writer at RoadToVR.com. He has 14.1K followers on Twitter, 7,088 subscribers on YouTube and 637 followers on Twitch.
Palmer Luckey Palmer Luckey is regarded as one of the founding fathers of virtual reality. He is the founder of Oculus VR and has an online VR forum MedRetro where he talks about virtual reality. He was listed among the top VR influencers by Disruptor Daily and Brio. He has 65,600 followers on Twitter. 
RESEARCH STRATEGYTo identify the top VR and AR influencers in the US, we searched through industry reports for a publicly available list of the top influencers in the areas. We were able to find a list of top VR influencers published by Izea.com, BrioVR, eCampusnews and Onalytica. Then, we scanned through the list for influencers with more than 5,000 followers and those mentioned in more than two publications as top influencers in VR/AR.

Next, we searched for the social media platforms the influencers use. We combed through their websites (where available) and their profiles on Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Twitter. Some listed influencers don't have accounts on the requested social media platforms. In those cases, we have left the corresponding column blank. For some influencers, direct contact information could not be provided as it wasn't publicly available on their social platforms and third-party sites like Hunter.io. In those cases, we have provided a link to their LinkedIn profile through which they can be contacted.