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| ByteDance prepares to enter virtual reality |
ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is preparing to enter the US market with another product, and the company has begun putting together a team of Beko employees on the West Coast to specialize in licensing content and marketing its devices to American consumers.
The company is also communicating with VR content producers and is willing to pay a higher price for VR games and experiences.
Biko currently has more than 40 job openings in the Bay Area, Seattle and San Diego. Several of the positions the company hopes to fill are linked to a content-focused organization called Beko Studios.
These include the head of Pico Studios, the head of VR games strategy - Pico Studios, the head of the external content system - Pico Studios and the head of operations for the organization.
Beko would also like to fill some technical positions related to VR hardware and software development and research and development.
At least one job also indicates that this hiring drive is not just about attracting American talent to the company, because depending on the job title, the Director of Consumer Sales oversees sales and marketing of the entire Beko product in the American consumer market.
Beko is one of several Chinese VR startups with promising products. But there was little chance of it being introduced to Western audiences until Bitedance took over in August. Competing with Quest 2 is very difficult, especially if you do not have a lot of money in the definition.
Previously, Biko had a small team in the United States. But it mainly focuses on business sales outside of China.
The company launched its latest pair of glasses, the Pico Neo 3 Link, in Europe last month. "We entered the European market for consumer VR headsets," she wrote on Twitter.
ByteDance is preparing to expand its virtual reality unit Beko
ByteDance also recently began moving some of its American employees from TikTok to Beko, including executive director of business development Sally Wang, who has worked on content collaboration for the social video app.
Since the acquisition, Beko has doubled its content licenses for virtual reality goggles. The data shows that the company is willing to invest heavily in virtual reality content, including content already licensed by Meta.
The Beko website lists games like Superhot VR, Red Matter, 11 Ping-Pong, and Arizona Sunshine — all games that passed the search.
But one wonders if ByteDance can sell Beko glasses at prices close to Meta glasses. IDC recently estimated that Meta has sold nearly 15 million Quest 2s since the goggles launched in late 2020, putting it in line with major gaming platforms.
One of the reasons for the Quest 2's success is its $300 price tag, in large part because Meta has no intention of monetizing virtual reality hardware.
Instead, the company sees Metavirus as its next big growth engine and sees hardware as a way to get there.
Pico's Neo 3 Link costs €450 (about $480) in Europe. These glasses contain the latest Qualcomm processor from the Quest 2.
But I don't know if consumers are willing to pay that much for it. Especially if they are new to VR and don't care much about hardware specs.
However, it appears that ByteDance has been around for a long time, and is poised to compete with Meta's computing immersive efforts on multiple fronts.
Beko also hopes to hire several tactile engineers and scientists to design the waveguides. This means everything you need to create advanced AR and VR footage to make your Meta work.