The WSJ reports that TikTok owner ByteDance is beginning to gain market share in the field of virtual reality headsets, which US giant Meta Platforms has identified as very important to the future of the group.
Two years ago, ByteDance acquired Pico, a Chinese startup that makes VR headsets. The deal opened a new front in the Chinese company’s competition with Meta.
In fact, parent company Facebook and Instagram are also jostling for users and advertising revenue with TikTok as the short-video app grows in popularity.
According to Industry Data Pico’s Headphone Shipments Have Skyrocketed
Making it a small but fast-growing company in second only to Meta in the global market. In particular, Pico has never sold its consumer headphones in the US.
In 2021, CEO Mark Zuckerberg changed Holding Investment Offices Email List Facebook’s name to Meta in part to reflect his bet on the metaverse , a more immersive version of the Internet that is experienced largely through a real headset. virtual reality.
The company spent a lot of money on that ambition. In its latest quarterly results, Meta says that there are more than 200 apps on their VR devices that generate more than $1 million in revenue per app. Still, overall revenue in Meta’s Reality Labs segment fell 17% in the quarter due to lower sales of the Quest 2 headset.
Just a Year Ago Meta Held a 90% Market Share According
To research firm International Data Corp. By the third quarter of 2022 – the latest time period for which data is available – Meta’s market share had dropped to around 75%.
Pico’s market share more than tripled over the same period to around 15%. No other VR headset maker holds more than 3% of the market.
IDC data shows that Meta’s headset shipments in the third quarter fell 48% from a year earlier. ByteDance’s Pico is the only headphone maker to increase shipments, in a market estimated to be worth $4 billion by 2022.
A spokesperson for Meta said: “We are pleased get CMB Directory to that consumers have more ways to experience VR, because when they do, it helps foster the ecosystem, which in turn encourages developers to create produce more great content.”
ByteDance’s foray into the virtual reality headset market comes at a difficult political time for the company.
