ByteDance Eyes a VR Hardware Acquisition

ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, is considering purchasing the VR headset maker Pico Interactive. An acquisition could see Pico push its standalone headsets more aggressively as competition for Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2.

Based in Beijing (with U.S. headquarters in San Francisco), Pico is already a leading consumer VR hardware maker in China, where Facebook does not sell its Oculus Quest headsets. Still, Pico’s footprint is miniscule compared to that of Oculus—the research firm IDC estimates that Facebook’s devices accounted for nearly two-thirds of global VR headset shipments in Q1 2021, with Pico coming in at third place behind China’s DPVR and ahead of HTC and Sony.