Bulletins

ByteDance bought VR headset maker Pico

Pico Neo 3 Pro headset

Pico will release its Neo 3 Pro headset in the coming months.

Courtesy of Pico

The TikTok owner has acquired Chinese VR hardware startup Pico for a reported 5 billion yuan (US$772 million). Pico previously raised around $62 million, including a $37 million Series B round in March.

Pico has been making its own standalone VR headsets, similar to Facebook's Oculus Quest. However, the company's U.S. business has primarily been focused on enterprise VR; Pico is expected to release a new version of its headset, dubbed Pico Neo 3, in the coming months.

It's unclear whether ByteDance has any plans to expand Pico's consumer VR business beyond mainland China; a ByteDance spokesperson only told the South China Morning Post that the company was "optimistic about the future of VR and its alignment with (the company's) mission."

Janko Roettgers

Janko Roettgers (Twitter, Mastodon) used to be a senior reporter at Protocol, reporting on the shifting power dynamics between tech, media, and entertainment, including the impact of new technologies. Previously, Janko was Variety's first-ever technology writer in San Francisco, where he covered big tech and emerging technologies. He has reported for Gigaom, Frankfurter Rundschau, Berliner Zeitung, and ORF, among others. He has written three books on consumer cord-cutting and online music and co-edited an anthology on internet subcultures. He lives with his family in Oakland.

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