The acquisition of ByteDance has not been a miracle for two years. What's the next step for PICO?

Tech 2023-10-12 23:24:10 Source: Network

Interface News Reporter | Xiao FangInterface News Editing|The layout of ByteDance in the VR field obviously does not duplicate the miracle of today's headlines and Tiktok's explosive growth.In August 2021, ByteDance acquired PICO, and a year later, it will release a new consumer VR product PICO4/Pro, which will not only be listed in China, but also enter overseas markets such as Europe, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia

Interface News Reporter | Xiao Fang
Interface News Editing|

The layout of ByteDance in the VR field obviously does not duplicate the miracle of today's headlines and Tiktok's explosive growth.

In August 2021, ByteDance acquired PICO, and a year later, it will release a new consumer VR product PICO4/Pro, which will not only be listed in China, but also enter overseas markets such as Europe, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia. However, according to a report by 36 Krypton, at the beginning of this year, PICO lowered its VR device sales target for 2023 to around 500000 units, which is nearly half lower than last year's target of 1 million units.

Even so, PICO is still looking for room for improvement. Recently, Guo Wenshan, the head of game business at PICO China, revealed at the first XCO Developer Challenge 2023 that the number of applications in the PICO App Store has exceeded 530.

In terms of the absolute number of applications, PICO has fallen far behind its overseas counterparts. Guo Wenshan also told media such as Interface News that the current over 500 applications cannot meet the needs of each user, but he believes that the key is not the absolute quantity, but the content that meets the taste of different types of users.

User retention and user activity enhancement are the two main dimensions that PICO focuses on internally. Through internal data, it has been found that users can find 3-4 content that best suits them in the first month of using the device, significantly improving retention rates.

This means that the most challenging issue for PICO at present is how to provide more applications that interest users and build a richer content ecosystem.

VR urgently needs to break the circle of content

After ByteDance acquired PICO, it poured a lot of resources into PICO, and even sold new PICO4/Pro products at a loss of about 500 yuan per set to seize more market shares. But a year has passed, and this "miracle driven" expansion has had little effect.

This is not a problem for PICO alone, as other domestic AR/VR equipment companies are facing even worse conditions than PICO. According to IDC data, in the first half of 2023, China shipped 328000 AR/VR head displays, a year-on-year decrease of 44%. PICO accounts for 58.7% of the market share, with other brands having only a fraction of PICO's share.

The overall weakness of the market is directly related to the insufficient attractiveness of AR/VR device applications to users. Guo Wenshan stated that the explosion of application ecology has also been a problem that PICO has been exploring, and the key lies in providing high-quality and groundbreaking content. If products like "Rhythm Lightsaber" or "Fitness Ring" are launched, it may quickly push the industry into the next stage.

But developing a popular AR/VR application is not easy, especially as developers face more challenging survival issues. The industry is still in its early stages, with small shipments and many developers not yet profitable.

Among PICO's more than 530 applications, only one fifth come from domestic developers. Some developers started developing game applications during the first wave of VR craze in 2016, while others rushed in at the call of companies such as Meta and Apple. Many people were not VR practitioners before, and there were also some developers from the industry, such as platform companies such as iQiyi and Bilibili.

The survival dilemma has made some developers eager for quick success and instant benefits, not by developing new applications or innovating product forms in blank areas of the market, but by flocking to areas with high maturity and good market returns, leading to homogenization of applications.

These issues need to be addressed by the platform through operational means, allowing developers to gain a living space, attracting more people to develop AR/VR applications, and guiding them to develop more types of applications.

Bind Developer

Faced with the current problems in the application development ecosystem of the AR/VR industry, PICO attempts to solve them by strengthening connections with developers.

Guo Wenshan stated that on the one hand, PICO should introduce the product SDK, technological progress, and the latest possibilities to the developer community through technical preaching, increasing their opportunities to understand PICO technology; On the other hand, PICO will also attach importance to the construction of developer communities, encourage developers to establish user communities using platforms such as preemptive experience platforms, share experiences, exchange technologies, and organize community exchange activities in a planned manner.

The 2023 First XR Developer Challenge held by PICO is considered an important measure to strengthen its application content ecosystem construction. PICOOS product manager Ma Jiesi stated that in order to achieve a high-level development of the entire XR track, it is not solely through the efforts of PICO or a single brand. PICO has always attached great importance to developer partners and has launched multiple incentive plans to help developers grow from hardware, technology, marketing, and other dimensions.

The PICO team has also given more consideration to the conflict between developers' pursuit of rapid payment collection and team operation, as well as users' desire to see more innovation.

For example, there are a large number of homogeneous shooting, car, and ball games in VR games, as these types are relatively mature and can be developed quickly. But consumers do not necessarily have to pursue different experiences of guns, cars, and balls, but rather want a gun, car, and ball that is different from tradition. New technologies, especially those related to MR and human-computer interaction, can definitely have an impact on the ecosystem of such content. Although this challenge does not require developers to develop in a specific direction, it leans towards innovative applications in scoring rules and reward settings, especially providing special support for MR related tracks.

In terms of building an application content ecosystem, PICO places greater emphasis on building a content ecosystem from a user perspective. Although the number of PICO applications is lagging behind, Guo Wenshan stated that the real pressure PICO faces comes from users.

His implicit meaning is that only by retaining existing users and increasing their activity can the PICO developer ecosystem truly function well. Only by building a more diverse application ecosystem can PICO attract more new users.

After giving up on striving to achieve miracles, PICO has found a development path that is more suitable for the current market environment. Whether PICO can achieve its original development expectations in the future depends on how much patience ByteDance has with it.

Disclaimer: The content of this article is sourced from the internet. The copyright of the text, images, and other materials belongs to the original author. The platform reprints the materials for the purpose of conveying more information. The content of the article is for reference and learning only, and should not be used for commercial purposes. If it infringes on your legitimate rights and interests, please contact us promptly and we will handle it as soon as possible! We respect copyright and are committed to protecting it. Thank you for sharing.(Email:[email protected])

Mobile advertising space rental

Tag: for The acquisition of ByteDance has not been miracle