[Image: Pico Interactive]
TikTok, the enormously popular video-based social media platform, may be making its first real forays into virtual reality thanks to its parent company
ByteDance recently acquiring VR hardware startup Pico. Beijing-based ByteDance, which saw its revenue rise 111% in 2020 and counts more than 1.9 billion users across multiple products and platforms, purchased Pico for an undisclosed sum, its first major move into VR.
Social VR Advances
Kendra Sunderland is one of many pornstars popular on TikTok. [Image: TikTok]
Although specifics about the deal remain under wraps, ByteDance did boast of its VR expansion, calling Pico a "comprehensive suite of software and hardware technologies.” The third-largest VR hardware manufacturer as of Q1 2021 will now allow ByteDance’s “entry to the VR space and long-term investment in this emerging field." Some industry pundits and commentators see this acquisition as the first stage of ByteDance’s likely challenge to Oculus’s VR market dominance. Tied to social media giant Facebook, Oculus devices and users create a virtual network without compare. TikTok, with its approximately 700 million users (and its recent forays into
Augmented Reality content), could help ByteDance bring VR to an even larger audience than even Oculus.
Network Nutting
Pico Neo 2: part of the Pico hardware lineup. [Image: Pico Interactive]
And, of course, the thrills of enjoying an immersive VR tryst with a favorite pornstar (or three) is so much more enjoyable when you’re using a world-class device with the kind of thriving, sophisticated network of users and support that both Facebook and TikTok exemplify. Pico, which
showed ample promise as an independent VR creator, appeared to be gearing itself toward enterprise-only use. By becoming part of the TikTok family, a new (and expansive) range of possibilities emerge. From mainstream gaming to online shopping, education to inspiration, Pico can now move into everyday use – or at least, that’s the hope.
