Facebook’s VR division is on shaky ground, with Mark Zuckerberg appearing in court recently over a lawsuit by Zenimax. However, the court proceedings did show us a glimpse of Facebook’s vision for virtual reality, with Zuckerberg announcing that the company plans to invest $3 billion over the next decade into VR. There was just one question that needed to be answered: who exactly was in charge of Facebook’s VR division? Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe stepped down recently to head the PC VR division instead. Now we have an answer: Hugo Barra.
Hugo Barra, for those of you unfamiliar with him, was once the Vice-President of Android at Google. He then left Google back in 2013 to become Vice-President of International at Xiaomi. Under his leadership, Xiaomi garnered international legitimacy and started to expand to international markets outside of China. Singapore was the first stop, followed closely by Malaysia, Philippines and India, where it became one of the top three best-selling smartphone companies in two years. In 2014, Xiaomi sold 61 million smartphones, a huge growth from the 18.7 million it sold in 2013, thanks to the international markets.
And just earlier this month, Barra announced that he would be leaving Xiaomi to head back home to Silicon Valley, and to Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10103456684278791
Hugo Barra isn’t a total novice to virtual reality, he helped Xiaomi introduce the Xiaomi Mi VR headset, and in an interview with Bloomberg last year, he had plenty of praise for Google’s Daydream VR. As head of Facebook’s Vice-President of VR, he will not only be in charge of PC-focused Oculus but will also manage Facebook’s broader VR field.
