ByteDance plans major Investment in VR Games and Applications,
The company behind the famous video application is stepping up its diversification efforts. After showing its interest in video games in May 2022, especially by offering mobile games, ByteDance wants to turn to VR. A goal that she wants to achieve with the acquisition of Pico. This start-up, the third largest manufacturer of VR headsets, has opened several job openings to expand its operations in the United States.
In addition to its headset, the Pico Neo 3 Link, the company has created a division offering games and VR experiences: Pico Studios. Positions she would like to fill include Studio Executive, Head of VR Strategy, Head of Overseas Content Ecosystem and Head of Operations. Pico also recruits engineers to improve its helmet and software developers.
ByteDance has also moved some teams from TiktTok’s US branch to Pico, including Business Development Manager Sally Wang. Before acquiring Pico, the company didn’t even hope to reach the western market. This new parent company strategy puts them in direct competition with Meta. With VR, the company wants to challenge Meta.
The tech giant is a leader in the VR sector. Its headset, the Quest 2, is the most popular on the market with 15 million units sold. This success is mainly due to the competitive price of 350 euros, the entry-level price for VR. Meta’s strategy is very aggressive as Mark Zuckerberg’s company doesn’t seek to make a profit from selling helmets.
The Pico Neo 3 Link headphones, now owned by ByteDance, were released in Europe last month for $450. That puts it at a disadvantage compared to Meta, despite having a much newer Qualcomm processor than the Quest 2 components. However, consumers new to VR aren’t always interested in hardware specifications. ByteDance focuses on the long term and positions itself against meta on several fronts. On the one hand, the Chinese company wants to focus on content.
The Pico headset offers hit games also available on Quest 2, such as Superhot VR, Red Matter or Arizona Sunshine. On the headset side, engineers have been hired who specialize in haptic feedback that interfaces with the body to provide a more immersive VR experience. Pico’s high-performance headphones could be a strong argument against Meta if ByteDance manages to popularize them.
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