According to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Meta Platforms (META.O) and Tencent Holdings (0700. HK) have agreed to sell a brand-new, inexpensive virtual reality (VR) headset in China. The partnership marks Meta Platforms’ return to a region where Facebook and Instagram are forbidden.
According to sources cited by the Journal, the preliminary contract would make Tencent the only vendor of the headgear in China, and the videogame manufacturer will begin selling it in late 2024. The Journal reported the news.
It also allows Meta to return to China after an absence of 14 years and compete with Bytedance, the owner of TikTok and manufacturer of the VR headset Pico. The study did not mention the prospective cost of the new headset at any point. Reuters’ inquiries for comments from Meta and Tencent were not met with a response.
In the United States, the Quest 2 headset may be purchased for a starting price of $300, while the Quest Pro headset can be purchased for a starting price of $1,000. It introduced Quest 3 earlier this year, with pricing beginning at $500.
Midway through 2009, Beijing barred access to the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter in response to violent protests in the western region of Xinjiang, which officials said were instigated by Facebook and Twitter.
The agreement is being made amid tense ties between China and the United States due to the Biden administration’s decision to place export restrictions on some high-end technology, notably on specific semiconductors, to prevent the Chinese military from using this technology.
According to a report in the Journal, Meta intends to utilize lenses in the headset that are more economically friendly than those used in the Quest 3 for the Chinese market. Additionally, this version will be distributed in many additional areas.
With the cheaper headgear delivering games and other programs released by the Chinese business, Meta would receive a more significant portion of the money from the sales of devices. In contrast, Tencent would receive a more substantial share of the revenue from sales of content and services.
The drive into China comes when Meta is challenged by Apple’s new mixed-reality headset, Vision Pro, which is expected to go on sale at the beginning of next year.
The headset is geared toward enthusiasts and has a price tag over three times higher than Meta’s most expensive Quest headset. IDC, a research company, reports that, at the moment, Quest is the most popular product on the market for virtual reality.
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