Image Source : China Visual

BEIJING, September 26 (TMTPOST) – Pico has launched a new generation of VR headset all-in-one machine "Pico 4" during an online global product release conference.

Pico 4 is equipped with the industry-leading Pancake optical solution and front and back balanced design. The weight without strap and battery is 295 grams, described by Pico founder and CEO Zhou Hongwei as "equivalent to the weight of a soda".

The Pico 4 is priced at €429 ($413.54) for the 128G version and €499 ($481) for the 256G version.

Pico is the first domestic VR headset maker with top domestic market occupancy. In the first half of 2022, VR shipments were 558,000 units, of which, Pico shipments reached 349,000 units. ByteDance had raised Pico's sales target in 2022 from 1 million units to 1.8 million units.

VR business in ByteDance's internal rating is quite high. However, employees in the company have different attitudes towards Pico business, with some describing it as a business with unclear expectations.

PICO is also receiving employees from Douyin and Xigua Video. For instance, Ren Lifeng, the head of Xigua Video, and Song Binghua, the head of Douyin's variety show business have all been transferred to PICO.

Pico adopts the basic path of most domestic VR brands, trying to enrich its ecology in two aspects: occupationally-generated content (OGC) and professional user-generated content (PUGC). ByteDance has nearly ten studios in different directions to lay out VR content.

PICO completed round-A financing of 167.5 million yuan ($23.9 million) In July 2018. At that time, the company CEO Henry Zhou revealed that the company was expected to be listed in China or an overseas stock exchange in the next three to five years. However, in August 2021, PICO was acquired by China’s tech giant ByteDance in a final deal worth more than 9 billion yuan ($1.27 billion).