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ByteDance, which owns TikTok, bought startup Pico
ByteDance, which owns the social network TikTok, acquired Chinese startup Pico, which develops virtual reality headsets. The amount of the deal is unknown, but the new owner notes the high potential of the VR market, as well as unique solutions from the Pico team.
The manufacturer of virtual reality accessories began operations in 2015. Pico is now headquartered in San Francisco, with more than 300 employees working on the design and manufacture of the headsets. The company is the world’s third-largest manufacturer of VR systems, with shipments up nearly 45% over the year. Pico produces virtual reality devices for corporate clients, the company offers such well-known models of the Neo 3 Pro and Neo 3 Pro Eye 6DoF line, which support 4K resolution. The equipment features high levels of stereo speakers, as well as a design that is suitable for extended wear. Not long ago, the startup released the headsets to the Asian market for the custom sector, but they are not yet available for the rest of the country.
ByteDance has been considering acquiring the startup for some time, with a tentative purchase price of about $773 million. Interestingly, this deal strengthens ByteDance’s competition with Meta, which has the Oculus platform. And for the latter, the Internet giant paid $2 billion in 2014. In addition to this direction, the rivalry between the two leading social networks, TikTok and Instagram, is intensifying.
ByteDance was created in 2012 by programmer Zhang Yimin. The company’s first app was the news service Toutiao, and later a similar app BaBe appeared. Although ByteDance owns various Internet products, the most successful among them was the social network TikTok. The latter was launched in 2017, and was focused on the Chinese market. In order to go international, ByteDance acquired Musical.ly. This service was also designed for sharing short videos and music videos, but already had a large number of users outside of China. Its acquisition allowed it to combine algorithms, improve the product and conquer the foreign market. After TikTok became available to other countries in 2017, it was valued at $20 billion, and just one year later the figure was $75 billion.
Interestingly, ByteDance is the first startup in China to become successful without financial support from local Internet giants Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent. In 2012, investment firm Susquehanna International Group invested in the company. In addition, SoftBank, General Atlantic, Primavera Capital Group, and others have financed ByteDance over the years.