Success Story: ARTOGO

ARTOGO was founded in April 2021 with a vision to revolutionize the arts sector by creating a digitalized arts and culture ecosystem that is not constrained by time or geography. With early growth incubated by Google and the local Taiwanese AppWorks Accelerator, a turbo engine built for seed-stage startups, ARTOGO has thrived to become the largest virtual online tour platform in Asia.

ARTOGO offers a comprehensive approach to helping arts and cultural institutions digitalize which covers content licensing, editorial planning, shooting, modeling, production, distribution, and ticket sales.

“When we first began exploring the digital experience of online exhibitions in 2019, we looked at all kinds of ways to digitalize exhibitions and create a platform where the public could browse at will,” explains Howard Yang, co-founder and CEO at ARTOGO. “After assessing different solutions, it was evident that Matterport 3D technology was the right choice. Matterport is the easiest to use and provides the best experience.”

One of the features that the Matterport 3D cameras and digital twin platform offer that the team at ARTOGO found most impressive is Matterport’s Dollhouse View. The Dollhouse View enables the viewers to rotate a 3D model at any angle to fully appreciate the layout and how the 3D spaces fit together, room by room and floor by floor.

“No other solution offered this option at the time. We loved how immersive the visitor experience could be with Matterport’s Dollhouse mode and the functionality is available out of the box,” says Howard Yang. “Using the Matterport technology we could enhance the experience so that, when taking a 3D tour, our exhibition and museum visitors can see the entire space in 3D and see exactly how the exhibition flows throughout the different rooms.”

Another vital advantage of using Matterport as the technology behind ARTOGO’s virtual tours is the freedom and flexibility the Matterport solution offers. Benjamin Chen, co-founder & Director of Technology at ARTOGO, continues, “Importantly, Matterport’s SDK integration enables us to create unique, online experiences that are tailored to the needs of the arts and culture sector.”

Walt Chuang, co-founder & Director of Marketing at ARTOGO, explains, “We aim to facilitate cultural content exchange amongst different countries, allowing people worldwide to enjoy different exhibitions and guided tours as if they were there in person. We do this by using the Matterport technology to create virtual tours that can be experienced online regardless of your location.”

To create the digital tours, the ARTOGO team focuses on three core elements: quality content, a great experience, and a robust platform. As well as integrated content from arts and cultural centers around the world, ARTOGO has developed a unique immersive guided tour experience leveraging Matterport’s SDK.

Today, ARTOGO collaborates with major art museums, galleries, museums, and historical sites throughout Taiwan, Asia, and around the world. The ARTOGO website now hosts more than 450 virtual tours. It has received recognition throughout the sector and from the government, which recognizes the importance of the platform in promoting arts and culture. ARTOGO has now hosted more than four million views.

“It was definitely the right choice to partner with Matterport,” says Howard Yang. “Through our use of the Matterport technology, we have elevated the digital visitor experience to such heights that it now attracts paying customers.”

The pay-to-visit model is a huge boom for the arts and cultural sector; creating a new stream of revenue with unlimited potential to attract visitors from around the world. It has proved so successful that in 2024 ARTOGO plans to launch more than 20 paid experiences for exhibitions around the world. It is anticipated that these experiences will reach a new milestone of 100,000 ticket sales in 2024.

Experience a museum virtual today

Howard Yang adds, “Matterport is a foundational technology for our business and, as such, we have promoted Matterport’s software, hardware, and services in our region. Through ARTOGO’s work, we have become a prominent platform for the arts, with many universities and art venues in Taiwan adopting Matterport.”

ARTOGO continues to push to frontiers in digital arts and cultural experiences, developing new interfaces and features, making payments easier and developing support for new membership models.

“Understanding and celebrating the different domains of art, culture, heritage, and tourism demands different conditions and approaches,” states Walt Chuang. “We have seen explosive demand for new types of digital experiences and we intend to continue to work closely with Matterport on our important mission to bring art, culture, and heritage to people without constraints of time or location.”