Meta's popular virtual reality headsets called Oculus are not available on the German market. This has a serious impact: German start-ups are already falling behind other countries in terms of funding.
This is probably due to a dispute between the US company and the German regulatory authorities. They accuse Facebook of abusing its dominant market position. Shortly after a court ruling on the matter, Meta took its Oculus headsets off the market in Germany in 2020.
The latter is now creating stumbling blocks for the nascent virtual reality industry in Germany, according to a Bloomberg report. Local startups are struggling to source Meta's headsets and are now faced with the decision of whether to develop applications with less popular rival headsets or abandon the fast-growing $4.4 billion US market. "Oculus Meta's sales stop is already having an immense impact on us, as the entire B2C sector cannot be served," Christian Gnerlich, founder of Brainjo, a Regensburg-based VR company specialising in brain training software, told the US media. Meanwhile, German VR companies lag far behind competitors in the UK, France, Israel and Switzerland when it comes to funding, according to Pitchbook data.
Source: businessinsider
Deutsch 
Français 
English (UK) 
Italiano