Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has announced that it would take a cut of 47.5% on any virtual asset sales made in its Metaverse.
A look into Horizon Worlds
Meta has announced plans to take cuts of up to 47.5% on the sale of any digital asset on its virtual reality platform, Horizon Worlds. The virtual reality platform is an integral part of the company’s plans to create a metaverse.
Meta will take an overall cut of up to 47.5% on every transaction, and this figure is the culmination of a 30% “hardware platform fee” for sales made through the MetaQuest store, a virtual store where Meta sells apps and games for its virtual headsets, and a 17.5% fee payment for the use of the Horizon Worlds.
In the blog post published on the company’s official website, Meta discusses plans to allow a handful of Horizon Worlds creators to sell virtual assets within the worlds they would build. In the future, these virtual assets could go on to include NFTs.
The size of this cut proposed by Meta has sparked outrage within the NFT community, and various people have taken to Twitter to express their displeasure.
One Twitter user had this to say.
Reactions such as this are understandable, considering that other virtual assets marketplaces charge considerably less for transactions.
Virtual Reality is the future
Horizon Worlds, previously known as Facebook Horizon, is a free virtual reality and online video game. Within the Horizon Worlds, users gain the ability to build and explore virtual worlds. Over the last few months, companies and individuals alike have been purchasing everything within virtual worlds, from art to real estate.
Recently, popular hip hop veteran Snoop Dogg began to develop the Snoopverse, his interactive world within The Sandbox. The Sandbox is an Ethereum-based platform for creating and monetizing online hang-out spaces and gaming experiences. Other famous figures such as Carebears and the Smurfs also own land within The Sandbox.
In a statement about Virtual Reality, Vivek Sharma, Meta’s VP of Horizon, said this.
“We think it’s a pretty competitive rate in the market. We believe in the other platforms being able to have their share.” This statement provides a bit of insight into Meta’s cut-throat transaction practices.
The Two-Faced Nature of Meta
Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said in November 2021 that Meta would help metaverse creators avoid Apple’s app store fee.
“As we build for the metaverse, we’re focused on unlocking opportunities for creators to make money from their work,” he said. “The 30% fees that Apple takes on transactions make it harder to do that, so we’re updating our subscriptions product so now creators can earn more.”
This occurrence makes Meta’s announcement more bizarre because the fee they have announced is significantly higher than what Apple charges in-app developers.
