Quick take:
- Meta is planning to take a 47.5% cut on all products sold on Horizon Worlds.
- The technology giant announced Monday it is introducing virtual goods on its metaverse platform.
- A Meta spokesperson confirmed to CNBC Wednesday the company will take a 30% hardware platform fee, with Horizon Worlds charging $17.5% on top of that.
Meta Platforms plans to take nearly half of sales on its Horizon Worlds metaverse platform. According to a company spokesperson who confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday, sellers will pay a 30% hardware platform fee. On top of that, Horizon Worlds will charge a 17.5% fee for using its marketplace.
Horizon Worlds is one of Meta’s primary products for creating a metaverse-centred business empire. On Monday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Vidyuu Studios that it will be introducing a feature to test virtual goods on the immersive 3D social app.
However, Wednesday’s revelation could create a significant bottleneck for people who were eagerly looking to start selling products on the platform. The NFT community has already started to demonstrate its disappointment following the reveal with one Twitter user posting:
At 47.5%, Meta’s cut is more than 50% higher than what Apple charges for listing products on the App Store. This contradicts Meta’s and CEO Zuckerberg’s comments made in June 2021.
The Facebook founder stated that Meta would not charge creators any commissions on paid online events, subscriptions, badges, and other products until 2023. He also promised that Meta commissions will remain below the 30% that Apple and others take.
Overall, Horizon World’s fees are a mountain above what leading NFT marketplaces charge. For instance, OpenSea charges 2.5% while the highly incentivised LooksRare’s equivalent is 2%.
Meta has indicated that it plans to introduce NFTs to Instagram, which makes the trendy digital assets part of its metaverse ecosystem. This makes it difficult for the company looking to compete with other NFTs and metaverse platforms.
The company has committed $10 billion to build the metaverse and it’s also planning to launch an AI supercomputer this summer. Its multi-pronged strategy looks poised for domination if it can live up to Zuckerberg’s promise.
“As we build for the metaverse, we’re focused on unlocking opportunities for creators to make money from their work,” he said last June.
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