GlobeSt.com: Do you believe that immersive 3D media will completely replace 2D photos and video in real estate? Do you think this will hold true for other industries as well?

Brown: Yes, we believe simple 2D media, aka photos and video, will be replaced by 3D media because 3D media enables a multitude of 2D or 3D modes. True3D is really 2D plus another dimension. Websites will eventually stop showing just a set of disjointed 2D images or director-controlled walkthroughs and will instead provide an immersive experience with both 2D and 3D perspectives. Once this trend takes hold, people will stop using just a 2D camera to capture content for real estate listings and other markets, and will instead use a 3D-enabled camera to capture that extra dimension, which delivers an immersive experience.

It's more cost-effective to use a single capture session to generate both an immersive walkthrough and a set of 2D media than it would be to just capture the 2D photo gallery with a DSLR camera. Given that the cost of capturing a space in 3D is often less than capturing it in 2D, we see 3D becoming the new industry standard not just for real estate, but for other industries as well. Immersive 3D media is a much more effective and versatile medium for managing and making decisions about any property through its lifecycle.

GlobeSt.com: Can you fill us in on Matterport's traction in other sectors such as travel/hospitality, architecture, engineering, construction and insurance?

Brown: In addition to residential real estate, we are already seeing adoption in other industry verticals such as multifamily, commercial real estate, hotels, vacation rentals, business listings, event venues, retail, architecture, engineering, construction, insurance, appraisal and facilities management. Our customer-partners include companies like residential brokerage Redfin, mechanical engineering firm TL Circle and vacation rental platform Vacasa.

The biggest factor for adoption will be the evolution of cloud-based applications that make use of digital media to facilitate the management of properties through their lifecycles. For almost 30 years, residential real estate has led the way in the use of digital media, incorporating photo galleries into consistently improving visual presentations of home listings. As other industries see the availability of low-cost methods of capturing immersive 3D media for spaces, we are seeing them adapt their workflow and leverage new cloud-based applications to incorporate 3D into their decision-making.

Matterport's 3D application platform, which enables customers to incorporate 3D models and spatial metadata into their own applications, will also be an important facilitator and driver of adoption across multiple industries. We're already seeing the early stages of this evolution impacting the real estate business with applications for virtual staging, for example.

GlobeSt.com: What are your growth objectives for the year ahead?

Brown: We are planning to expand our residential adoption while growing our business in other industries and geographies. Our international focus is on Europe/Middle East/Africa, where we have had a presence for a few years. We're also starting to build our plans to expand within Asia Pacific and South America. To date, Matterport has created 3D models of over 900,000 spaces, and by the end of 2018, we expect the total number of real-world spaces captured and digitized on our platform to exceed 1.5 million.