Amazon Building a VR Team

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Indicating that it's poised to follow Netflix and Hulu into the VR world, Amazon, which also runs a subscription video streaming service, is on the hunt for some virtual reality expertise.

As spotted by UploadVR, this Glassdoor listing shows that Amazon is looking to hire a senior software development manager to “lead our Virtual Reality team.”

“The team is responsible for building the Virtual Reality experience within Amazon Video,” the post adds. “Entertainment is evolving rapidly. The future will not be limited to passive 2D experiences. The Virtual Reality team will explore and create the platform and interface for immersive storytelling. This will include an ingestion and playback platform for Virtual Reality experiences.”

Amazon hasn’t announced a specific VR initiative, but, from a competitive standpoint, it makes total sense that the company would want to strike while the iron’s hot.

The sector for VR and 360-video is ramping up and attracting lots of VC dollars. Meanwhile, Netflix has already booted up an app for the Oculus-powered Samsung Gear VR platform, and Hulu has one on the way.

Google, meanwhile, reportedly has some big VR plans that extend well beyond Cardboard, and there are rumblings that Apple is also looking to expand into virtual reality products.

And virtual reality clearly has Tim Cook’s attention. “No, I don’t think it’s a niche,” the Apple CEO said on the company’s recent Q1 call when asked about VR. “I think it can be…really cool and has some interesting applications.”

Amazon seems to agree.