Creators will be able to sell virtual items in Meta’s Horizon Worlds

Well, well, as you know Facebook rebranded to Meta in order to focus more on the metaverse, a virtual reality world. But of course, the company cannot give up on social media, or at least, a form of social media dubbed Horizon Worlds, which is a virtual world you can hang out with using avatars in the metaverse. And now, The Verge reports that Meta has found a way to monetize in the metaverse: with creators selling virtual items on there.

Horizon creators will be able to make money in the metaverse

Pretty much, Meta is looking into ways to let creators make money within Horizon Worlds. Horizon Worlds is a social metaverse platform for Quest VR, and it should be coming soon to mobile phones and possibly game consoles. Now, a handful of Horizon creators will get the possibility to sell virtual items and effects in the worlds they have created. Basically, creators will be able to sell anything, whether we are talking about a VIP section in their virtual worlds or just virtual items such as jewelry, or a special basketball, stated Meaghan Fitzgerald, who is the product marketing director for Horizon.

In the US, participants will be able to earn money from a $10 million creator fund that Meta has recently set up in order to reward creators who have the most engaging worlds. And now, to further incentivize creators to use Horizon Worlds, Meta will be offering an “in-world purchases” system so creators can make money.

But of course, Meta will be indeed taking a cut of the money that creators earn by selling virtual stuff in the metaverse. You may be wondering what exactly is that cut? Well, for Horizon purchases, Meta is taking a 25 percent cut of the percentage that’s left after a platform fee was applied. And that platform fee depends on the platform. For example, there are platform fees with a 30 percent cut, like Meta’s own Quest Store, and the creator will then be left with a little over half of the sale price. Put in simple terms, Meta will get 25% of the 70% left after the platform fee was applied.

Vivek Sharma, Meta’s VP of Horizon, stated that the company thinks this is a pretty competitive rate in the market, and that other platforms should also be able to have their share. However, as The Verge rightfully reminds us, Meta was calling Apple’s 30% commission for App Store purchases too aggressive, but hey…

So far, Horizon doesn’t have advertising, except for a recent Wendy’s theme world that was called… wait for it… “Wendyverse”. Apart from that, though, the focus is on monetization for creators, and not on ads right now. Fitzgerald does mention that ads would be an area they want to explore in the future, but as you can imagine, it’s better first to have people in the metaverse. And the best way to get users on there – is to have creators on there.

Additionally, Meta is rolling out a bonus program to encourage creators to build out their world. It is a “goal-oriented bonus program”, and the bonuses will not be subject to any fees. The bonuses will be calculated based on the engagement of the creator’s world.

Of course, not everything is allowed in there. Creators will need to follow the company’s VR conduct policy and not publish any content that’s prohibited in Horizon Worlds. If creators fail to follow the rules, they would be removed from the program.

Horizon Worlds has so far hit 300,000 monthly users just for its few months of existence. So far, the company stated that 10,000 worlds have been created in the metaverse. And Meta plans to expand further, planning to bring Horizon Worlds to mobile phones later this year, and probably to game consoles too (but there, it is still in “early discussions”).