Eddie-Griffin
Banned
https://vr-sina-com-cn.translate.go...sl=zh-CN&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc
So Pico went hard to capture the market to go after Quest and is planning to expand to the west from Asia this year, but just last week had lost a ton of money and laid off a bunch of employees due to the expense parent company Bytedance who made the Tiktok app, suffered due to this.
So now Pico is has dropped its expectation of 1 million sales to 500,000 sales for the year 2023, and imo that's probably going to be tough.
As the article says there's apparently mismanagement and infighting going on at the company right now as it tried to correct the ship and continue pursuing the VR market. it seems that there are conflicts regarding the direction to take.
Pico VR had good marketshare in Asian countries, and even had gained foothold in recent steamVR charts with the biggest increase in headsets among users, but they still have gained little global marketshare after all the spending.
I guess it will depend on how aggressive they are for their western release. If they keep the exchange price in the 400's they will cost as much as Quest 2, and all reports about Pico 4 and friends are that the y are more technologically ahead. But also quite a bit behind the recently released PSVR 2, and with like 400 other companies releasing headsets soon, including Quest 3, not sure how well the Pico 4 will do in countries like the US or region like Europe this year.
It looks like Bytedance won't spend "regardless of cost" anymore though, and that's likely going to impact how well it does.
According to relevant sources, Pico, the leading VR headset manufacturer in the industry, has lowered its 2023 sales target to 500,000 units (full year). Specifically, the domestic C-end target is about 350,000 units, and the B-end market is 150,000 units. This change may be the first step for Pico to usher in a change in the eyes of the outside world.
According to another source, Pico has officially responded to the rumor, saying that the sales target has indeed been lowered to a certain extent compared with 2022, but the specific data is inconvenient to disclose, and the actual may be slightly higher than 500,000.
Previously, Sina VR had predicted that Pico would lower its expectations to a certain extent this year, and some Pico insiders also revealed to the outside world that the company’s previous goals were slightly aggressive, and it lacked rational thinking about market trends and audience groups. In addition, although Byte invested "regardless of cost" after the acquisition of Pico, there are rumors of "infighting" within the company from time to time. No matter from which point of view, Pico's road after being fully acquired has not been smoother.
If we use industry standards, Pico’s key indicators are not bad. Some insiders said that its weekly activity is about 100,000, which is also in line with the goal at the beginning of the year, which also largely proves Pico’s popularity among users. Popularity, and this figure is still top-tier among domestic brands.
In fact, Pico has had an absolute upper hand in the domestic market since the Neo3 era. Competitor brands can only hold a candle to them in terms of added value or individual hardware parameters, and their existence only plays the role of "green leaves" in a large sense. At least, users can still have a room for price comparison when purchasing on major platforms.
Of course, all of this happened before the Apple headset came out. However, 2023, which is still calm at present, is not destined to be ordinary, and the pace of several giants is also destined to undergo significant changes this year. As for strength and speed, they may not be able to depend on themselves to a certain extent, and the real king of field control may not yet appear on the stage. At that time, domestic and foreign manufacturers including Meta and Pico may have to adjust far more than sales targets.
So Pico went hard to capture the market to go after Quest and is planning to expand to the west from Asia this year, but just last week had lost a ton of money and laid off a bunch of employees due to the expense parent company Bytedance who made the Tiktok app, suffered due to this.
So now Pico is has dropped its expectation of 1 million sales to 500,000 sales for the year 2023, and imo that's probably going to be tough.
As the article says there's apparently mismanagement and infighting going on at the company right now as it tried to correct the ship and continue pursuing the VR market. it seems that there are conflicts regarding the direction to take.
Pico VR had good marketshare in Asian countries, and even had gained foothold in recent steamVR charts with the biggest increase in headsets among users, but they still have gained little global marketshare after all the spending.
I guess it will depend on how aggressive they are for their western release. If they keep the exchange price in the 400's they will cost as much as Quest 2, and all reports about Pico 4 and friends are that the y are more technologically ahead. But also quite a bit behind the recently released PSVR 2, and with like 400 other companies releasing headsets soon, including Quest 3, not sure how well the Pico 4 will do in countries like the US or region like Europe this year.
It looks like Bytedance won't spend "regardless of cost" anymore though, and that's likely going to impact how well it does.