ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, seems to be doing everything possible to compete with Social media Giant, Facebook. After acquiring the world’s leading social media app, TikTok, ByteDance has successfully secured its own virtual reality headset maker called Pico, competing with Facebook in the virtual reality market space.
The news was first reported last week by Bloomberg. ByteDance, however, didn’t disclose the price of the deal after Monday’s confirmation.
In March, Pico raised about $ 62 million in venture capital from a Chinese company, including $ 37 million in Series B. Like Oculus, they are manufacturers of hardware and software for virtual reality devices. Unlike Oculus, Pico has significant influence in China. It may not have the same name as Oculus or HTC, but the company is a leading producer of virtual reality equipment sold to Chinese consumers and corporate clients in the Western world.
Pico has now found her home at ByteDance, and in reality, two world leading virtual reality brands now reside inside social media companies.
It’s no secret that the VR market is slowly evolving, but Facebook is paving the way for this technology by investing billions of dollars in an ecosystem that traditional investors have frowned upon in recent years. It’s hard to say if this is a VR renaissance moment or just another sign of the market in trading. Chances are, in my opinion, ByteDance is genuinely interested in building a VR-only brand and wants to closely follow Facebook’s lead as it learns from Facebook’s mistakes and benefits from its contributions to the ecosystem. Whether the company is solely focused on the Chinese consumer market or is freely seeking overseas corporate clients is a big question for ByteDance.
