TikTok dad or mum sells 46,000 Pico VR headsets in China in race to beat Meta

ByteDance, the dad or mum firm of short-form video platform TikTok, has up to now offered 46,000 of its digital actuality headset Pico on-line in China because it seeks to higher compete with Fb dad or mum Meta.

The determine was reported by the South China Morning Put up on Sunday (October 23), which cited information from market intelligence agency Sandalwood Advisors.

ByteDance reportedly offered that variety of gadgets by way of on-line orders from the launch date of the Pico 4 standalone VR on September 27 till October 14.

Of the general gross sales, 65% had been made by way of e-commerce web site JD.com, whereas 17% had been made by Alibaba Group’s Tmall market and one other 17% had been offered by way of TikTok’s Chinese language counterpart Douyin.

The launch came to visit a yr after ByteDance acquired Chinese language VR headset maker Pico for an undisclosed quantity because it pushed to diversify its enterprise.

In an announcement to media shops on the time, ByteDance mentioned Pico’s “complete suite of software program and {hardware} applied sciences, in addition to the expertise and deep experience of the crew, will assist each our entry to the VR house and long-term funding on this rising subject”.

Within the first quarter of 2021, Pico was the third-largest VR headset producer globally, based on information from market analysis agency Worldwide Knowledge Corp. or IDC.

IDC in March mentioned a brand new spherical of competitors within the VR market will begin in China pushed by the idea of the metaverse.

“Amongst them, Pico Neo3, Qiyu VR sequence, and Nolo Sonic are the fashions with a bigger share of on-line e-commerce platforms in 2021,” IDC mentioned. Qiyu VR is developed by Chinese language on-line video platform iQIYI, typically in comparison with Netflix, whereas the Nolo Sonic is by Chinese language tech firm NOLO VR.

“The attractiveness of content material continues to extend, and {hardware} producers improve funding in content material ecological building,” IDC mentioned earlier this yr.

The brand new Pico headsets are priced at 2,499 yuan (USD $345) for the 128-gigabyte variant and a pair of,799 yuan for the 256GB variant, the SCMP mentioned.

That value vary makes Pico headsets extra reasonably priced for purchasers versus the high-end Quest Professional headset that Meta Platforms launched simply weeks after the debut of the Pico 4. Meta’s Quest Professional is priced from $1,499.99.

Meta, Fb’s dad or mum firm, acquired VR developer Oculus in 2014 and now holds 90% of the VR market, with Pico trailing far behind with solely a 4.5% share, the IDC mentioned in a June report.

“Meta’s dominance within the VR market can be challenged within the coming years,” says the IDC.

“Latest enlargement into many European international locations in addition to a rising library of consumer-friendly content material ought to assist the corporate appeal to a bigger viewers within the coming quarters,” the IDC mentioned.

Nevertheless, the agency famous that Pico, which largely operated inside China’s borders, “has maintained a presence in lots of international markets although this has primarily occurred within the business phase”.

“Latest enlargement into many European international locations in addition to a rising library of consumer-friendly content material ought to assist the corporate appeal to a bigger viewers within the coming quarters.”

Worldwide Knowledge Corp.

“Latest enlargement into many European international locations in addition to a rising library of consumer-friendly content material ought to assist the corporate appeal to a bigger viewers within the coming quarters,” the IDC mentioned.

Nonetheless, the 46,000 VR headsets offered in lower than a month fell wanting Pico’s goal after its founder and president Henry Zhou reportedly mentioned in an interview with Chinese language media in September that the Pico 4 is anticipated to promote greater than 1 million items.

ByteDance’s entry into {hardware} manufacturing shouldn’t be restricted to VR headsets. In July, the corporate unveiled plans to design its personal semiconductors and in 2019, it disclosed plans to design academic devices and revealed its first smartphone beneath the Smartisan model.Music Enterprise Worldwide