TikTok’s Chinese parent company, Bytedance Ltd., has begun to grab market share in virtual reality (VR) headsets, a segment of the market that Meta Platforms Inc. (META) sees as crucial to its future fortunes .
Two years ago, ByteDance bought Pico, a Chinese startup that makes VR headsets, opening up a new front in competition with Meta. Meta’s Instagram and Facebook have been competing with TikTok for users and advertising revenue in recent years as its popularity has soared.
Sales of Pico helmets have since skyrocketed, and while it doesn’t sell consumer helmets in the U.S., it has become a smaller but fast-rising upstart, second only to Meta in the global market, according to industry data.
Zuckerberg (Mark…
