When all manufacturers can make their own molds at low cost, the upstream mold manufacturers can only hand over the market to the 3d printer manufacturers.

2. The icing on the cake for raw material suppliers and shipping companies.

For raw material industries, such as mining and highly mechanized agricultural groups. It was originally a big capital, not a renaissance, but 3D printing will undoubtedly make them icing on the cake. A large number of powder products of metals, agricultural and sideline materials and chemical composite materials will even exceed the mainstream finished materials. Once 3D printing becomes popular, there will be a ready-made 100% order growth on the table. This increase in demand for raw materials is essentially the "de-intermediate link" feature of 3D printing. Then the upstream shipping industry will undoubtedly benefit a lot. The whole earth will participate in the division of labor to a greater extent to improve the productivity of raw materials and reduce costs and consumption. Imagine that it is cheaper to transport a shipment of powder for 3D printing from Australia to Shanghai by tanker, or to transport steel powder from Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and other provinces by road or railway-in fact, it is more difficult for the latter to directly export finished steel powder, and it is still necessary to transport the ore to a smelter close to the sales market for processing and then become a finished product.

3. The intensification of regional monopoly.

3D printers are not standard production tools, just like every country can produce machine tools, but there are fewer countries with precision machine tools to manufacture spacecraft than nuclear countries. More sophisticated 3D printers and more accurate data models will become the core competitiveness of manufacturing industry. This monopoly is more thorough than the process monopoly realized by senior technicians now.

These three points are the macro features of the 3D printing era.

So what can small and medium-sized enterprises do in this era? In other words, what kind of projects can early investment and financing practitioners pay attention to?

The following entrepreneurial directions are undoubtedly full of opportunities and risks:

First, the 3D scanner

If it is a second venture or internal venture of a team with considerable resources, channels and complete upstream and downstream chains, then the most important thing to do is a 3D scanner that matches the 3D printer. 3D scanner is undoubtedly the upstream of civil 3D printer. Most tasks of 3D printers used in industry and military need accurate modeling and design by engineers to achieve the required functions.

But for home 3D printing tasks, this is impractical. Tai Chi customers' things can't be promoted. From "do whatever you want" to "anyone can do it", there is a missing link in automatic modeling.

Home users don't know how to write three-dimensional vector equations. What they need is to turn ready-made things into drawings and output them to a 3D printer. At this time, we need a machine that can automatically scan the object space and model it. If you have seen the movie Prometheus, then the thing in the movie that emits red light and scans around the cave and then presents the whole cave structure is a 3D scanner.

Actually, the 3D scanner is not that hung. High-precision 2D scanners are now easily available-yes, the mouse is at your hand. Nowadays, the technology of mouse in positioning and ranging is very mature. Based on this technology, it is very feasible to establish a three-dimensional ballistic model. Although it is difficult, it is a technology that can be overcome.

The risk is that 3D printer manufacturers can also make their own 3D scanners. Therefore, if you don't want to be preempted by 3D printer manufacturers who have mass-produced finished products, traditional small and medium-sized hardware manufacturers should act now and start technical research in this area-or, as in the past, wait for the products of big manufacturers to come out and quickly launch cheap copies. Shanzhai also has a market in the era of 3D printing.

Second, the painting community

For Internet people, the entrepreneurial direction of small and medium-sized hardware manufacturers is still too "heavy". Entrepreneurs who are good at light assets do not have many choices in the era of 3D printing. But nothing is absolute. Who would have thought "Meitu Xiu Xiu" would be successful when all the people were holding thick PS guidance books?

It is undoubtedly necessary to quickly modify drawings, and customize the combination and splitting of drawings. Especially if the service is free. Finally, in addition to media, social networking and shopping, there is also a need to establish an Internet community. The 3D printing and drawing community will become another big distribution center of Internet traffic, just like the popular vertical media and social platforms.

But this direction is too mature and the threshold is too low. Although there is no such community in China (there are only single digits abroad), it is conceivable that it will become the Red Sea overnight.

Moreover, there is no doubt that this kind of community will be the easiest way to get money, because it is easily understood by venture capitalists.

Third, standard drawing outsourcers.

If you are an entrepreneur who has been adhering to the programmer culture or engineer culture. Then it is a good choice to set up a team focusing on drawing development and optimization. This field is relatively fair and results-oriented. Whoever has good drawings can sell higher prices and get more orders.

The gameplay of 3D printing drawings is different from that of current desktop wallpaper service providers. Compared with consumer goods, drawings have stronger attributes as means of production. Because you can produce marketable products and practical objects when you get the drawings. Therefore, even for home users, the habit of paying for 3D printed drawings is very good.

Drawing design is different from the current graphic design, and the strength of individual developers will be far less than that of professional drawing design teams. In the era of 3D printing, the status of the service provider of this standardized project will become more important than before.

Fourth, new opportunities for vertical B2C.

Vertical B2C e-commerce is a gold mine with oil flowing. Therefore, the fight is particularly fierce. Nowadays, vertical e-commerce in almost all fields, such as home appliances, digital products, books and home, has become a red sea. At this time, there is a new field where an independent B2C system can be established, which will undoubtedly make hot money pounce like a hungry tiger.

Whether it is the sales of home 3D printer equipment and raw materials, or the sales of drawings, this B2C e-commerce will inevitably become very prosperous. Especially the latter. B2C wiredrawing is undoubtedly the direct downstream of standard wiredrawing outsourcers, and virtual transactions are not bound by logistics. At the same time, on this platform, individual graphic designers can also set up their own booths to sell finished products.

Will Taobao in the era of 3D printing still belong to Ma Yun? This is an unknown number.

Five, two or three raw material operators

If you are an entrepreneur with excellent government relations, it is also a good way to start a business by building or buying pipelines and base stations and selling 3D printing materials and services to some residential areas. Whether it is to set up a residential water station like bottled drinking water service or to enter the home through pipes like broadband operators, high-tech technical services and resource integration are needed. Moreover, this is just needed.

When home users' 3D printing becomes a daily behavior, the small demand for raw materials of different materials will become a great challenge. This is far from being fully satisfied by community supermarkets. It is conceivable that in the era of 3D printing, the main raw materials will be divided into three types: resin (corn flour or gum), metal (mainly aluminum alloy abroad at present), coagulant and filler (also a kind of agricultural and sideline products), and there are thousands of auxiliary materials. In addition to relying on vertical B2C websites, community operators are a very good source of this demand. If 3D printing can replace the home 10% purchase demand, it is worthwhile to directly lay the raw material pipeline into the home. Raw materials for 3D printing will become household necessities like water, electricity and warmth.

Sixth, 3D printing.

As for the definition of "entrepreneurship", whether it is self-employed or not is actually controversial in the investment circle. In the past, opening Internet cafes or water bars was usually not within the attention of investors. But printed in 3D-more imaginative.

It is a promising entrepreneurial project to set up offline chain distribution, adopt cloud management and rent 3D printers by time. Based on the above requirements for technology and raw materials, 3D printing bar needs integrated resource management and high-tech operation and maintenance services. This is not just a consumption project. Drawings, raw materials and machine leasing are all details worthy of establishing a new business model.

Undoubtedly, the self-operated 3D printing bar will definitely appear before the chain brand, but the chain operation of 3D printing bar will become the mainstream, with broad prospects and rich returns.

Seven, new media

The new media in the era of 3D printing is not the same as the new media we are talking about now. In fact, in traditional news textbooks, even Sina is still a new media. The idea borders on science fiction. But for the current vigorous multi-screen trend, it is indeed a practical method. Imagine that there are countless information points in the video signal read from the TV box. When a user selects an information point, the set-top box can download the 3D printed drawing pointed by the information point, and the set-top box can be connected with a 3D printer to make an article or a scene or a star shape to be displayed on TV. ...

This is a very sci-fi scene. But it may indeed become a new fashion. Television shopping will be reborn, film and television advertising will have a statistical return on investment, and the business model of traditional media can also be changed by home 3D printers.

There are too many entrepreneurial opportunities involved. All institutions in the media, film and television fields may be subverted by 3D printers. No matter what you do, it may become a new opportunity.

More importantly, the cost of subverting the media is much lower than that of subverting the manufacturing industry, and small and medium-sized entrepreneurial teams may be able to afford it. And the myth of technology may finally be staged again. Perhaps the charm of a 3D printer is that you are sure it will cause subversion, but you don't know what it is.