Facebook buy Oculus for $2 billion

Oculus VR, a startup company dealing with virtual reality, is going to join to Facebook. Facebook declared to buy Oculus VR for $2 billion and Oculus accepted it.

The Verge: Facebook buying Oculus VR for $2 billion

TechCrunch: Facebook To Buy Oculus VR, Maker Of The Rift Headset, For Around $2B In Cash And Stock

The Oculus VR team stated that their partnership will let them overcome many challenges to develop more impressive products with virtual reality in an official blog.

Oculus VR: Oculus Joins Facebook

Is this deal a truly happy wedding?

I guess Oculus is very pleased with this purchase. Oculus launched a new gaming machine "Oculus Rift" last year. It looks innovative. For more advancement, Oculus needs a large amount of cash. Nowadays, it is extremely expensive to develop a new game software with detailed computer graphics. It also costs to improve the spec of hardwares. Oculus will be satisfied with the compensation Facebook offers. In addition, Facebook declares that it allows Oculus to continue the current work, as well as Instagram.

On the other hand, Facebook is, not to say, a gigantic company. Its advantage is the enormous number of accounts using Facebook. Most of its profit derives from advertisement. Connecting people and gathering information about their personal interests are inevitable for Facebook for survival. It is unclear whether Oculus will contribute to the goal of Facebook.

It is certain that Facebook is indifferent to gaming machine by Oculus. Facebook is also dealing with computer game products, but they are not so successful. The main reason is that only a few users are willing to play games via Facebook. The market of simple games working on a web browser is a red ocean. Facebook has no solution to spread Oculus Rift to developing countries.

Perhaps Zuckerberg is considering another way to utilize virtual reality. He stated that Facebook is planning to develop a new platform other than the mobile which is now dominant. There are lots of opportunity to utilize virtual reality, such as education, communication, creation, and so on. I hope they will collaborate with each other effectively.


*Sequel