Author| Yu Huiru Editor| Luo Lijuan
On the afternoon of the second Friday of March 2022, in a high-rise office building designed with a glass curtain wall in a southern city, a group of people came out of a small conference room and walked among them in an extremely hurry.
"Say hello to me first, I'll have one more." He asked his colleagues to help receive the visitors, and before the voice dropped, the phone in his hand rang again.
The crowds coming in and out make the already modest office seem even more crowded. The office is home to a distributor of VR hardware vendor Pico. When entering from the outside, next to the company name that comes into view, the three big characters of "Meta universe" are even more eye-catching.
Located in a bustling business district, this office building is known as a financial, commercial and technology center, with it as the center, and two Pico offline authorized stores are open within 3 kilometers.
Image source: Pico official website
Ying Chao is pico's regional salesperson, often running back and forth in several cities, occasionally asking customers to come to this office to talk about business. He didn't deliberately remember the first few waves of visitors that afternoon, nor did he remember how many meetings there were that day. For Ying Chao, meetings and meeting customers are the norm. However, since the second half of last year, he still felt a significant change, "many customers took the initiative to come over, the pace is faster, the pressure is greater, and it is a bit busy." ”
In August 2021, Zhang Yiming spent $1.5 billion to buy Pico, which gave Ying Chao and his colleagues a shot of "chicken blood"; three months later, Zuckerberg changed the company's name to bring them a booster needle.
"I'm busy [this year] for the New Year." Should be said.
In fact, it's not just the sales side. In the six months since the acquisition, Pico has been changing from product publicity, technical services to content ecology.
Quantitative and qualitative changes under the blessing of bytes
After merging into bytes, Pico took the fast lane of Internet traffic and was no longer low-key.
In the impression of regional agent Zhang Hua, Pico has never done brand promotion in such a big way. Not only with the help of the platform of Douyin to do publicity, but even at the expense of heavy money in Shanghai to put a hard screen.
"This is probably the most obvious change in Pico since it was acquired by Byte, and all the publicity is very large." Zhang Hua told 24/7 Technology.
Ying Chao also felt the same way, "In the past, I relied on sales staff to sell goods, but now my strategy has changed." ”
Cooperate with JD.com, the exclusive partner of the Spring Festival Gala, promote on short video platforms such as Douyin, invite celebrities and Internet celebrities to stand in line to promote, sponsor popular variety shows such as Ace to Ace Season 7, and hold offline theme activities for female users on International Women's Day... Recently, the frequency of Pico's appearance in the public eye has increased significantly.
Taking the Douyin platform as an example, as of 7 p.m. on March 24, the Douyin topic of "playing VR and choosing Pico" had nearly 300 videos and a cumulative playback of 370 million times. Among them, many of the users involved in the shooting are Douyin tens of millions of fans of the Internet celebrity "Zhong Qi Zhong Qi", "Surfer Ah Yi", "Dong Dong and 37" and so on.
Short videos based on Douyin are just a channel for Pico to exert its strength, and during this year's Spring Festival, Pico cooperated with JD.com to launch activities such as distributing red envelopes and full coupons. According to Pico official data, during the Spring Festival from January 31 to February 7, 2022, Pico received a total of 26.18 million omni-channel coupons, with a total exposure of 1.13 billion people.
Byte's traffic policy also brings convenience to ying chao and Zhang Hua's work.
"In the past, to expand customers, you had to talk to each other, you had to tell him what VR was, and then say how his business was related to VR, and you had to tell the story yourself. Now you don't need to do that, everyone knows you. Ying Chao said.
In addition to saving the cost of upfront market education, a lot of exposure has also brought sales to Pico. According to previous official data, under the blessing of the joint Jingdong APP and related promotional activities, Pico's omni-channel Spring Festival sales volume increased by 32 times compared with last year, and the turnover increased by 29 times compared with last year's Spring Festival, winning the double championship of omni-channel VR category sales & sales.
Pico sponsors Ace vs. Ace Season Seven
In addition to online marketing and sales, Pico's offline channels are also rapidly rolling out.
Pico insiders revealed that at the end of last year, Pico set a goal of opening about 2,000 offline stores in 2022 for channel expansion.
The relevant person in charge of Pico responded to all-weather technology today: "At present, Pico's offline channels are still in the preliminary exploration stage, and the information of '2,000 offline stores will be opened this year' is untrue. ”
In this regard, the above-mentioned Pico insiders added that they did receive the target of Pico's offline channels this year to be about 2,000, but the epidemic led to the original plan "changing and changing", "the actual operation estimate is not reached, it is impossible to achieve." ”
Pico VR Mini Program shows that at present, the offline channels laid by Pico have covered Many cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Chongqing and so on, which are divided into four ways: self-operated stores, self-service machines, distributors and operators.
According to the incomplete statistics of all-weather technology, at present, Pico has opened a self-operated flagship store in Beijing, with nearly 200 offline dealer stores across the country, and 50 self-service VR machine experience points in Sam and a number of offline supermarkets.
Linked to product publicity, offline channels, and surge in sales are annual sales targets.
Previously, self-media reported that because byte's marketing effect on Pico far exceeded previous expectations, Byte has raised its original VR sales target for 2022, from 1 million units to about 1.8 million units.
The relevant person in charge of Pico told All-Weather Technology that Pico's sales target this year is about 1 million units.
But specifically on the Pico sales side, they actually received a higher sales target than 1 million. A number of people familiar with the matter told All-Weather Technology that Pico's sales target at the C-end this year can be described as "aggressive", but the company will evaluate the overall situation according to the sales volume of each month or quarter, and then adjust the next goal, marketing strategy, etc.
Shi Peng, a VR solution provider and Pico dealer, told All-Weather Technology: "I got (this year's) C-end target data from Pico this month was 1.4 million units, and then I saw 1.8 million units of news. However, there are often marketing campaigns on the C side to stimulate sales. ”
Zhang Hua said: "The plan set from the end of last year to the beginning of this year is the target of 2 million units (this year). This was originally the target of the C-end, but due to the impact of the epidemic, it may now be adjusted to the overall goal of the C-end plus the B-side. This year's B-side target sales will double from last year. ”
"But what exactly can be done is actually difficult to predict." Zhang Hua added that the impact of the epidemic on the industry is difficult to estimate, and the rhythm of sales staff has been affected. "The previous [target] could all be scrapped."
At the B-end, Pico's products are mainly used in education and training, exhibition display, medical and other fields. However, the sales of Pico's B-end products are far less than those of C-end products. A regional agent told All-Weather Technology that in the past two years, Pico B-side products have sold about 100,000 units per year.
However, from the perspective of Ying Chao's expression, Zhang Hua's statement on the B-end sales target is more conservative.
"[The B side] has to grow more than double." Ying Chao said, of course, compared to the B-side, the C-side of the target is more radical. "Last year, I did not get the final shipment data, but it is estimated that last year, the C-end shipments were more than the B-end, and the company actually wanted to mobilize the sales volume of the C-end, and the goal at the beginning of its establishment was to do the big C-end."
From this point of view, it is not difficult to understand byte's heavy investment in Pico's resources, personnel and so on.
Pico technician Ding Wen told all-weather technology that because of the strong investment of Byte people and money, Pico is now very fast in technology iteration. "Some technical implementations, which used to take half a year to see results, are now out in a month or two."
"Research and development efforts are stronger than before, and there are more and more tools for the industry." Zhang Hua said that in addition to sales, another goal of Pico on the B side this year is to make the service a little deeper.
Employees forbid the "meta-universe"
Founded in April 2015, Pico is a VR hardware and software developer. At the end of the same year, Pico launched its first VR headset and Pico industry solution. The following year, Pico launched the Pico Neo DK, the world's first VR all-in-one machine equipped with snapdragon 820. Next, Pico is new at the frequency of at least one all-in-one machine per year.
In May last year, Pico released the new VR all-in-one Pico Neo 3, with sales exceeding 10 million yuan in one day. According to IDC data, in the fourth quarter of 2020, Pico accounted for 57.8% of the domestic VR market share, surpassing Huawei, iQiyi, Xiaomi and other major manufacturers, ranking first in the year.
Pico Neo 3 Image source: Pico official website
"Pico has done a lot of things, the domestic VR all-in-one machine is brought up by Pico, it is also the first company in the world to use Qualcomm chips in VR glasses, and it has always been the leader in the industry." "Pragmatic" is the positioning of "old employees" to exceed the company's temperament.
Before joining Pico, Ying Chao worked as a sales agent at another VR company. In his view, at that time, most companies only wanted to tell stories under the name of VR, and the investment in the business was not large. So, with the idea of "wanting to do something", Ying Chao came to Pico.
Ding Wen, who entered Pico in the same year as Ying Chao, has the same feelings. He believes that Pico's pragmatism is inseparable from the characteristics of the boss's research and development. Zhou Hongwei, the founder of Pico, was a former executive of Goertek and has 10 years of experience in Goertek acoustics, mainly responsible for the hardware research and development team in Qingdao.
In the eyes of employees, it is this pragmatism that makes Pico one of the few companies left to survive the capital winter in the last wave of VR.
In the first quarter of 2017, the amount of global VR/AR venture capital plunged by 80% year-on-year, and the industry began to enter the "cold winter" in the following years.
Ying Chao's feelings are different from most people, "There are definitely a lot of people leaving the market, but I am growing at a rate of 50% every year, and leaving the market has nothing to do with me." ”
The meta-cosmic wind set off in the second half of 2021 has made many entrepreneurs see the opportunity to get rich, even if they have not yet figured out what the meta-universe is, it does not prevent everyone from flocking to the "gold panning". Pico's dealers also hung the words "Metacosm" next to the company name.
Even so, multiple Pico employees told All-Weather Technology that the company clearly stipulates that employees cannot mention the "meta-universe". Even sent an email to clarify the matter, not allowing employees to bring trends.
"When it's hot to a certain extent, most people are blind, and sober people are always in the minority." We will only say that it is a 'VR hardware manufacturer', do a good job of hardware, and cooperate with the software ecology. Ding Wen said.
After the news came out that the company was about to be acquired, Ying Chao thought that he would become a member of Tencent. However, the story did not follow his vision.
"When everyone was discussing when Tencent would enter the market, they found that the bytes had already entered." Why bytes? Ying Chao also thinks and summarizes this: "Compared with Tencent, Byte's globalization ability is stronger, and Pico has always focused on the development of global business. Byte enters the market, and Pico is more likely to become a global brand. ”
Currently, Pico has branches in Tokyo, San Francisco, Barcelona, Gyeonggi province and offices in Hong Kong.
In Ding Wen's view, this acquisition does not mean that Pico has climbed high, in their eyes, Pico is an excellent company. "Pragmatic and efficient, the business ranks first in the industry, the employees are self-driving, and the company pursues a flat culture." Byte is also a self-driving company, and the two are very compatible. ”
Vigorously make up for the "short"
In the second half of last year, almost overnight, the metacosm became the hottest topic in the global technology community.
This hot air has also contributed to a surge in global VR equipment shipments. According to the latest report disclosed by the third-party marketing agency IDC, in 2021, the global AR/VR headset market increased by 92.1% year-on-year, and the shipment volume reached 11.2 million units. Of these, almost half of shipments were completed in the fourth quarter. This was the year with the largest increase in shipments since 2016.
The report notes that Meta's Quest 2 is by far the most popular product, accounting for 78% of the AR/VR market last year. Pico VR products ranked third with a 4.5% market share. According to this calculation, the shipment volume of Pico VR products in 2021 is 504,000 units.
Although Pico's shipment volume in China ranks among the best, in Ying Chao's view, this does not mean that Pico has "done it", because the industry is still too small, and the entire industry lacks innovation, especially in the content ecology.
Today's VR devices, consumer business side is basically based on games, people who buy VR glasses want to try a fresh game experience. But for the relatively mature game console market, vr glasses can provide not enough content.
"In the current VR hardware market, Quest is the only one because they have cost-effective hardware products, but also attract users to its huge content ecosystem." Shi Peng said.
Pico understands the importance of the content ecosystem and works in this area. After being acquired by Byte last year, Zhou Hongwei promised in the letter that Pico users would get more content support and technical upgrade services in the future on the basis of enjoying the original services.
At the Mobile World Congress in early March this year, Qualcomm announced a cooperation with Byte, mainly for the development of XR technology, with the goal of developing a global XR ecosystem. "We're excited that we're going to be working together on hardware, software, and technology roadmaps to enable ecosystems for people." Byte Transfer CEO Liang Rubo said.
In order to enhance its user stickiness and attract new users to join, in November last year, Pico held the Pico VR E-sports Carnival, using more than 100,000 yuan in cash as a reward to attract users to participate.
According to the previous news of "LatePost", following Ren Lifeng, the head of Watermelon Video, Song Binghua, the head of Douyin Variety Show, and Wu Zuomin, director of Douyin Entertainment, will also be transferred to VR (virtual reality) product Pico, which also indicates that ByteDance will begin to increase investment in the field of VR content.
"The application content has indeed incubated a lot, but it will take time to apply the application as a whole, and it has not reached the stage of large-scale application, and I don't know if there will be some changes in the second half of the year." Ying Chao said to all-weather technology.
Since the end of last year, the content update speed of Pico VR app store has been accelerating, according to the incomplete statistics of all-weather technology, last December, Pico launched four VR applications, including "Sword Storm", "PowerBeatsVR", "Polygon World", "VFC Fighter", the first two products for the domestic VR all-in-one machine debut.
Pico Neo 3 (Extreme Edition) upcoming VR applications include 14 models such as "JUST HOOPS", "Demeo", "After the Demise: Winter" and so on.
As of March 26, Pico Neo 3 (Extreme Edition) has more than 300 apps in the Pico App Store, including app apps and entertainment apps, and the app content ecology has slowly begun to take shape.
"In the past, the content criticized by users has improved to a certain extent, and they (Pico) will be more active in obtaining more high-quality VR content in overseas markets, even including the introduction of some high-quality content from Quest and localization of these contents." Shi Peng introduced.
In terms of content ecology, Byte has users and experience accumulated by Douyin, while Pico itself has excellent VR hardware, and the combination of the two may create a better closed-loop ecology.
(Ying Chao, Zhang Hua, Ding Wen, and Shi Peng are pseudonyms)