ByteDance bought Pico in 2021. (File)
Pico, a virtual reality (VR) headset maker owned by ByteDance, the Chinese developer of TikTok, said on Friday it was laying off a small number of people after local media reported the start of hundreds of redundancies earlier this week.
The South China Morning Post reported unnamed sources on Thursday as saying Pico had slashed some groups by as much as 30%.
“While we continue to hire globally as a business, we are streamlining our team and as a result, are parting ways with a smaller number of associates,” a Pico spokesperson said in a statement.
“We greatly appreciate the contributions of these associates and are working closely with those affected to support them through this time of change.”
More than 200 employees were affected, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
ByteDance plans to launch Pico in 2021, widely interpreted as a bet on the Metaverse concept of virtual worlds, putting the tech giant in competition with US social media firm Meta Platforms Inc, which has its own VR devices.
The layoffs mark the latest streamlining for ByteDance, which like many tech peers in China has cut jobs and restructured as economic growth slows over the past year.
On Thursday, Tencent Holdings Ltd said it was making some personnel adjustments after local media reported layoffs in the “extended reality” (XR) business recently formed by the Chinese gaming and social media major.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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