Augmented reality, an open challenge

It is definitely the social network of the moment. Its membership is steadily growing, and while it used to be used mostly by teenagers, today TikTok is spreading to older people as well. The platform is growing, and so is the company that runs it. That’s why authorities in Ireland, where TikTok has its European headquarters, announced the creation of 1,000 new jobs in the country, bringing the number of employees over 3,000 (
Republic
). The Chinese social network has also begun its bet on augmented reality.

According to a report published by the
Protocol
, which cites sources close to the dossier, the company that owns the app, ByteDance, plans to invest “tons of money” in the development of content related to virtual reality, even as Meta is set to launch the metaverse. It seems that a large part of ByteDance’s investment is for hiring, particularly software specialists who will have to create the platform (
Ansa
).

Open Doors

TikTok’s parent company also owns Pico, the virtual reality visor provider that announced last week that it plans to expand further in the United States as well. Pico has posted more than 40 new job openings for software engineers who will be working in its Seattle and San Diego offices.

According to Protocol, Bytedance is also investing significant capital in the world of games and virtual experiences, precisely because of the hardware produced by Pico. The company is now looking for diverse professionals, from game strategy managers to operations managers and marketing experts who will “drive Pico’s products in the U.S. market” (
The Verge
).

Growing

In short, the challenge between giants is open as the world of virtual reality grows rapidly. According to
data from analysts at Idc
, in fact, the global market for such visors grew by 92 percent year-on-year in 2021, and the estimate is that the growth rate at the end of 2022 is 46.9 percent.

At least 50 million visors are expected to be shipped in the next four years, mainly due to the activities of companies such as Meta, but also due to new players such as Apple entering the industry. The Cupertino-based company, writes the
New York Times
, is gearing up for the challenge of the metaverse, which is why it has enlisted Hollywood directors such as Jon Favreau to create products that merge the physical and virtual worlds.