Facebook: We want to get 1 billion people in virtual reality

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, announced an ambitious goal to make virtual reality accessible to everyone.

“We are setting a goal,” he said. “We want to get a billion people in virtual reality.”

He didn't say by when, but showed off a new lower-cost device, called Oculus Go, to help make it happen. The existing budget way to get Facebook's VR is the Samsung Gear VR at $129 - but that requires a high-end Samsung smartphone in order to work.

Speaking at Facebook’s yearly virtual reality developers conference in San Jose, Mr Zuckerberg acknowledged the slow adoption of the technology to date. But he said his company’s goal was that one day, it would get one billion people into VR.

"We believe Oculus Go will be the most accessible VR experience," Hugo Barra, Facebook's head of Oculus said.