27 January 2017, USA:
Just a few days after leaving Xiaomi, Hugo Barra has joined Facebook to lead Oculus. He has been appointed as VP of virtual reality.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Founder of Facebook said, “I’m excited that Hugo Barra is joining Facebook to lead all of our virtual reality efforts, including our Oculus team. Hugo’s in China right now, so here we are together in VR. It seems fitting.
Zuckerberg stated in a post, “I’ve known Hugo for a long time, starting when he helped develop the Android operating system, to the last few years he’s worked at Xiaomi in Beijing bringing innovative devices to millions of people.”
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“Hugo shares my belief that virtual and augmented reality will be the next major computing platform. They’ll enable us to experience completely new things and be more creative than ever before. Hugo is going to help build that future, and I’m looking forward to having him on our team,” He added.
When Barra resigned from Xiaomi this week, he said only that he wanted to return to Silicon Valley and declined to specify where he was going. During Barra’s time in Beijing, Xiaomi has grown far beyond its home market with its strategy of selling stylish Android phones on thin profit margins. In January, it made a splash at the CES trade show in Las Vegas, capping a series of international launches that had taken the company into over 20 countries, including India, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Russia, Mexico and Poland. (Image- Facebook/ Mark Zuckerberg)