ByteDance makes another move into metaverse with acquisition of VR start-up Pico Interactive
- ByteDance said the purchase of Pico will support its long-term investment in VR
- Pico ranked third in global VR headset sales in the first quarter of this year
The company said that Pico Interactive’s software and hardware, as well as its talent and expertise, will support ByteDance’s “entry to the VR space and long-term investment in this emerging field”.
“We are optimistic about the future of VR and its alignment with our mission,” said a ByteDance spokeswoman.
In April 2021, ByteDance invested around 100 million yuan into Mycodeview, the company behind Reworld, an up-and-coming competitor to metaverse incumbent Roblox.
ByteDance ploughs US$15 million into Roblox rival, challenging Tencent
Pico Interactive will continue to focus on the Chinese consumer market while retaining most of its staff, according to sources familiar with the matter. ByteDance, however, has not yet made concrete plans for its VR products, they said.
“The investment and support of internet companies are beneficial for the VR industry because of their contents and new technologies,” said IDC analyst Claire Zhao, noting that the partnerships help build VR ecosystems.
Facebook’s foray into VR has more recently expanded into the metaverse, a tech buzzword signifying the next phase of the internet where our physical world combines with the virtual.
The company’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in June it will dedicate a team to its new vision while showing its virtual office space Horizon Workrooms this month by using the company’s headset Oculus Quest 2.
Pico Interactive, founded in 2015 by Henry Zhou Hongwei, employs 300 people and has offices in China, the US, Spain, South Korea and Japan. The company completed its B and B+ round of financing in March, raising US$67.23 million.
Zhou, who previously worked at Chinese acoustic components company Goertek, said then that the company will continue to invest in VR gaming and other consumer applications as it explores enterprise products.
The Beijing-based company is also planning to launch a new VR headset later this year called the Neo 3.
02:10
Virtual reality technology brings Olympic Games to Tokyo’s disabled children
With sales growing 44.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2021, Pico Interactive ranked third in the VR headset market, following Facebook and Chinese company DPVR, with HTC and Sony rounding out the list, IDC said in a June report.
Global sales of VR headsets are expected to rise to US$28.6 million in 2025, according to the same report.
