The parent company of TikTok, ByteDanceis investing in virtual reality, also looking for developers and engineers for software solutions and viewers. A indirect challenge to Metaowner of social rivals Facebook and Instagram.
TikTok invests in virtual reality
According to a report by Protocol, ByteDance has started investing significant sums in the development of VR content and technologies suitable for using virtual reality. Concrete investments, starting with hiring developers and engineers to create a software platform and in the future also hardwaree.
In fact they have appeared online as well 40 job offers for Pico, a Chinese manufacturer of virtual reality headsets. That just last year ByteDance I bought. THE Peak Studios they are almost all in California and Washington state. And in these areas they are looking not only for a strategy manager for VR games but also an optical and electrical engineer to design headsets.
There are also positions open in marketing for the consumer market in the United States. At the moment, Pico headsets are mostly known in China for the launch of Pico Neo 3 Linkalso launched in Europe with a price below 450 euros. But competing in the United States puts the headset in direct competition with Meta Quest, even in Meta’s country of origin.
There is certainly room for another competitor. The market for AR and VR headsets is grew by 92.1% in one year in 2021. And this year it should continue to rise at a slower but still very rapid pace: a +46,9%.
But the possible rivals of Meta could soon be joined by Apple, which seems to want to launch its own viewer in 2023. The market for virtual reality is therefore in turmoil. TikTok will have to invest a lot to emerge. And it looks like it is already doing it.