ByteDance’s VR brand PICO sold 46,000 headsets online in 18 days - PingWest

ByteDance’s VR brand PICO sold 46,000 headsets online in 18 days

ByteDance’s VR brand PICO sold 46,000 headsets online in 18 days

October 23, 2022 8:11 pm

On September 27, PICO launched its first VR headset since it was acquired by ByteDance. The headset, dubbed PICO 4, sold 46,000 in China between September 27 and October 14, according to statistics by Sandalwood Advisors.

JD.com attributed the most sales, with 65% of orders being placed. TMall and ByteDance’s own short video app Douyin both accounted for 17% of the sales.

PICO President Zhou Hongwei is also very optimistic about the sales of PICO 4, believing that it will exceed 1 million units, accoridng to Chinese local media Hexun.

Zhou’s optimism is well-justified. The market for AR/VR content and services in China is expected to grow from RMB 35.7 billion in 2022 to RMB 130.2 billion in 2026, at a compound annual growth rate of 38.2%, according to iiMedia Research. Statistics show that 15.73 million units of VR headsets are expected to be shipped worldwide in 2022, up 43.6% year-over-year, per IDC. The VR market is expected to bloom the coming years.

PICO was founded in 2015, and incorporated into the China’s internet conglomerate ByteDance in September 2021. For ByteDance, the VR brand is its ticket into the metaverse. The consumer enthusiasm evident by the sales record validates ByteDance’s foray.

ByteDance helped the PICO team grow several times to reach more than 1000 people, with around 80% being R&D staff, according to National Business Daily quoting Zhou Hongwei, PICO’s president and Yang Zhenyuan, ByteDance’s VP.

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