Multiple people familiar with the matter said that recently many of the core business leaders of ByteDance’s VR (virtual reality) business PICO have resigned and been reassigned. In the first half of this year, PICO Vice President Ren Lifeng has effectively resigned. He has not been responsible for PICO's business management for a long time, but he is still employed in the company. It has been confirmed that Ren Lifeng's current status in ByteDance's internal system "Feishu" is "Requesting Leave".
According to people familiar with the matter, Ren Lifeng will officially leave the company at the end of this year. At present, PICO's internal business is mainly divided into marketing department, hardware department, OS product department, content culture department and social center, among which a large number of employees have been laid off or voluntarily resigned.
According to internal employees, PICO had more than 2,000 employees at its previous peak, of which about two-thirds of employees in the marketing department resigned. The turnover rate in the technical department was slightly lower. The overall number of employees who have resigned is now close to half of the peak period.
The relevant person in charge of PICO subsequently responded to The Paper and stated that the company will maintain normal product operations and continue to increase investment in product technology. (The Paper)