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Ask HN: Why would Facebook/Oculus not just give away/discount VR headsets?

2 points by hoodoof ↗ HN
Facebook needs a large user base for VR to get going.

And given that they are prepared to spend billions buying Oculus, why would they not just spend the money to give away the headsets, or maybe massively discount them down to $10 each for example?

The new Oculus Go standalone VR headset is said to be only $200. At this price Facebook could spend $500,000,000 and get a user base of 2.5 million.

I would have thought getting this initial user base is the important part of the equation.

So why don't they do it.... give away the headsets?

2 comments

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bob_theslob646
First off because when you give something away you can't write it off for a loss meaning they have to sell it for something which they are, $200.

Do you have any idea on what it costs to manufacture a VR headset?

Plus why would you want to kill the margins in the hardware business before it even starts? Usually margins are eaten when things get competitive.

At the end of the day,incentives only work so much.

warrenm
Why should they give them away?

Spending half a billion dollars to get 2.5 million customers is - probably - incredibly stupid.

For half a billion dollars, how many customers/users do you think Facebook can get in almost any other manner?!

The incremental cost of customer acquisition for them is, effectively, $0. They aready have the infrastructure. They already have the network effects. They already have lots of other things.

Why should they spend half a billion dollars giving away VR headsets? Because you don't want to pony-up $200?