ByteDance is now a metaverse company, too

ByteDance, TikTok’s China–based parent company, is matching Facebook in more ways than one.

In 2020, TikTok overtook Facebook Messenger as the world’s most downloaded app. In July, it became the first non–Facebook-owned app to reach 3 billion downloads. And Monday, ByteDance spent a reported $772 million on its own version of Facebook’s Oculus: Pico, a virtual reality headset company.

Why this is big: Two of the world’s leading VR hardware companies are now owned by social media companies—and each is betting on different regions. While Oculus mostly markets headsets to US consumers, Pico has a foothold in the Chinese consumer VR market, reports TechCrunch.

• Oculus dominates the global VR market—it accounted for 54% of shipments in 2020, per Counterpoint Research, compared with Pico’s 5%. But it’s early days for VR adoption, meaning the leaderboards could shift in the years to come.

Looking ahead: There’s still a chance Pico could turn greater attention to American eyeballs—it already sells to corporate customers in North America, and Morning Brew–Harris Poll data suggests that there’s room for competition against Facebook’s offering.—HF