ByteDance Plans To Venture Into The VR Ecosystem

According to reports, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is on the verge of joining the extended reality space via virtual reality (VR). The short video-making company looks to venture into new space by banking on its popularity and user base.

As per the insider report, ByteDance plans to invest heavily in VR-related services, according to the Verge report on Saturday.

ByteDance Advertises Job Listings

According to, the short video-making firm has listed 40 jobs for Pico. ByteDance acquired Pico, the Chinese VR headset manufacturer, in 2021. However, most openings are for the Pico Studio, based in California and Washington.

Similarly, some job listings specify that they are looking for the head of VR game strategy and a game operations manager.

Furthermore, other open positions show a significant focus on Pico’s VR. Some of the roles include optical engineer and systems design engineer. Another job listing is head of consumer sales, indicating a possible presence in the United States market.

According to the job description, the ideal candidate will be responsible for selling and marketing Pico’s products in the U.S.

In the meantime, there is still a lot of expansion that Pico will carry out, and with ByteDance’s financial muscle, Pico can achieve a lot.

ByteDance’s Competition with Meta

Meta is the undisputable leader in the virtual reality space. And there are not many companies that can compete with it. But it seems ByteDance can. 

With ByteDance beginning to test its move into the VR market and Pico at the center of the drive, Meta is in a massive battle. While Meta is the only known top player in the VR ecosystem, it is set to come across Pico as a direct rival.

The TikTok subsidiary is among the new firms looking to stake their claim in the VR space. Admittedly, the company has invested in aggressive VR innovations to displace Meta.

However, most VR products are expensive, and ByteDance wants to cut the price drastically. The firm is looking to subsidize the cost of its product with an average price of $1,500.

As a result, ByteDance aims to be among the early market entrants to stake its claim on the VR space. The market is lucrative, as nearly $500 million is invested annually in funding VR hardware.

The new strategy is to develop a device with high-end capabilities like processing power and eye-tracking features. And the current marketing plan shows that Pico will first promote the device in Europe before the United States.

Interestingly, Meta is promoting its latest VR product, Quest 2, more in the West than in the United States. As the largest VR market in Europe, Germany will not have a single Quest 2 in its market in the meantime.

However, reports indicate that ByteDance has grabbed the opportunity to sway the European market in its favor over Meta.

It will be interesting to see how the battle between Pico and Meta will shape the VR industry in the coming months.