Dong Bo (left), founder of Fire Fox, discusses the details of VR content design with a colleague at his company in Weifang.

Fire Fox Interactive Entertainment Co, a virtual reality content developer in Weifang, Shandong province, sees tremendous business opportunities in the Weifang Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone's international VR city construction.

According to the company,its orders have already queued up until January 2017. Its founder and general manager believe the VR industry will report explosive growth in three to five years, while“mixedreality” will be developed around five years later, they said.

Dong Bo, founder of Fire Fox, established Weifang Fire Fox Digital Animation Co in 2008. The company's name was changed to Shandong Fire Fox Interactive Entertainment in 2016. It is not related to the Firefox web browser.

The startup process was not as smooth as Dong expected. In the initial stages, demand for digital animation content was low because internet games were rarely seen and smart phones were not so widely used in China 10 years ago, he said.

At first, Dong worked mainly in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. In 2008, when he came back to Weifang, the need for content was low and industry employees did not have enough work. 

Orders from Weifang and neighboring cities in Shandong, such as Qingdao and Jinan, have increased gradually in recent years.

But now, Dong's company, known for quality content creation, has bargaining power in the Weifang market.

"We no longer need to beg for orders. Our position is so much better than before," Dong said.

Fire Fox has participated in the creation of 41 cartoons, four movies, 109 advertisements and media projects, and more than 70 mobile and web games since 2009. The company has also trained more than 200 talents for companies in the industry.

Xin Lizhi, Fire Fox's general manager, has extensive business management and media experience. He is working to strengthen talents training and has set detailed employee job responsibilities, two key tasks for the company.

"Establishinga scientific management system will help to enhance business profitability and support future development," Xin said.

Some large companies have shown interest in Fire Fox and offered acquisition plans.

Dong said his central focus at this stage is to strengthen the company’s business development.