Meta, also known as Facebook, has launched a pilot program that allows Horizon Worlds users to make money from their VR creations. The pilot allows users to receive payments to access their virtual worlds or to purchase virtual goods in those worlds. Meta could also receive a 50% cut of sales.
Meta Launches Horizon Worlds Monetization Program
Meta has begun to seriously consider Horizon Worlds’ reach, the flagship VR metaverse experience in its portfolio, and is now monetizing it. Meta decided to start monetizing the experience after the launch of Horizon Worlds December 20,21. It has seen significant growth in its userbase, growing 10 fold over three months. Horizon Worlds reached 300K active monthly users in February, with over 10K new worlds created. However, it still had not established a way to profit from the growth.
Now, the company will launch a pilot program which allows some creators to make virtual products or collect money for their access. The company did not offer a definitive number on how many creators will be included in this first stage, only saying there will be a “handful.” The idea is to implement an open market where all users can benefit from user-generated content availability.
Meta’s Cut
Meta will not open these opportunities without taking a share of any sales. After paying the store fees, Meta set up a 30% commission for every sale. Although this can seem complicated, The Verge calculations show that creators will be left with slightly more than half the sales of virtual goods or virtual worlds.
Meta considers this an acceptable model, which allows stores to keep their portion. On this, Vivek Sharma, Meta’s VP of Horizon, stated:
We think it’s a pretty competitive rate in the market. We think other platforms will be able compete for our share.
Meta has abstained from integrating ads into Horizon Worlds, aside from one instance that features a Wendy’s themed experience inside Horizon Worlds, called the Wendysverse. However, Meaghan Fitzgerald, product marketing director for Horizon has stated that ads “may be an area we want to explore in the future.” Meta is already allowing companies to post metaverse-inspired ads on some of their apps, including Instagram and Facebook.
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