Meta Is Testing A New Digital Economy In Horizon Worlds — As Company Loses $10 Billion In The VR Market

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Meta, revealed that the company is experimenting monetization for the Horizon Worlds virtual reality app in order to enable developers to generate income.

While the new virtual reality game is now only available to a select set of creators, it represents an essential next step in the company’s long-term strategy of laying the groundwork for virtual social networking.

The company explained Tuesday in a blog post:

“Entrepreneurs and creators will have greater freedom to develop a business plan that works for them. As a result, we’re thrilled to take this step today and build on the $10 million Horizon Creators Fund that we announced last October.”

Only For A Select Few

Meta stated that a “select group” of producers will be able to sell “virtual products and effects” in their individual worlds. Only residents of the United States and Canada above the age of 18 will be allowed to buy those things.

Unlike other virtual reality (VR) games in the metaverse, Zuckerberg’s Horizon Worlds is not built on blockchain technology or non-fungible tokens (NFTs), both of which have come under fire from certain game creators and gamers.

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A Bonus For Popularity

Meta said separately that it will give monthly bonuses to authors whose virtual worlds are particularly popular with consumers. This program will not be subject to any fees; however, many news outlets reported that Meta might take between a quarter and 70% of the virtual item marketplace.

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Zuckerberg discussed the news during a conversation with Vidyuu Studios, which was moderated by Alex Chandler, the developer of Horizon Worlds.

Zuckerberg shared some details of what the metaverse economy may look like in the future, and how they want to use these capabilities to generate revenue in Horizon Worlds.

“If you envisage a potential metaverse at some point in the future, surely the capacity to trade virtual commodities and transport them between worlds will be a significant element of it. However, there must first be items that people want to purchase in order to get the economy moving,” Zuckerberg stated.

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Massive Loss For Meta

The company formerly known as Facebook has gone to great pains to promote its latest endeavor in the virtual realm.

Building the metaverse costs more than an arm and a leg. While sales of the company’s flagship Quest headgear increased around the holidays, the company has lost more than $10 billion in the virtual reality market in 2021 alone.

Additionally, when social platforms such as Horizon Worlds expand in popularity, Meta will need to learn how to safeguard virtual reality communities, which is no easy task.

The recent endeavors demonstrate Meta’s early development of the infrastructure necessary for a digital economy. It assured that further monetization and incentivization tools are on the way.

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