IOI
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, plans to take a 47.5 percent cut from the sale of digital assets on its virtual reality platform Horizon Worlds, which is an important aspect of the firm’s aim to create a “metaverse.”
In a blog post published Monday, Facebook stated that a few Horizon Worlds developers will be able to sell virtual items within the worlds they create, which might include NFTs in the future. However, Meta did not specify in the post how much it will charge creators to sell their work.
A Meta spokeswoman told reports on Wednesday that the company will take a 47.5 percent commission on each transaction. This includes a 30% “hardware platform charge” for sales made through the Meta Quest Store, where it sells virtual reality headgear software and games. Horizon Worlds will also impose a 17.5 percent fee on top of that.
Some in the NFT community have been offended by the amount of the cut. “I despise you Facebook,” one Twitter user commented. “If Meta wants 47.5 percent of NFT sales, they need to talk to the IRS because I don’t even have that after taxes,” one person said.
OpenSea, an NFT marketplace, takes a 2.5 percent share of each transaction, while LooksRare only takes a 2 percent cut.
Companies and people have been buying anything from art to real estate in virtual worlds on portals like Decentraland and The SandBox during the last few months. Snoop Dogg, the hip-hop artist, bought virtual land in December, and a fan paid $450,000 for a plot next to him on The Sandbox.
“We think it’s a relatively competitive fee in the market,” Meta’s VP of Horizon, Vivek Sharma, reportedly told a website. We feel that other platforms should be permitted to participate.”
Horizon Worlds (previously Facebook Horizon) is a free online virtual reality game that allows users to create and explore virtual worlds. The game was released on Meta’s Oculus VR headsets in the United States and Canada on December 9, although it has yet to be released globally.
Apple vs. Meta
Meta’s costs for selling virtual assets on Horizon Worlds are much higher than those charged by Apple to developers on its App Store.
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, and other Meta executives have previously chastised Apple for charging developers a 30% fee for in-app purchases made through the App Store.
Zuckerberg stated in November that his business would aim to assist metaverse creators in avoiding Apple’s App Store fee.
“We’re focusing on unlocking options for creators to generate money from their work as we build for the metaverse,” he stated. “Because Apple’s transaction costs of 30% make it more difficult to achieve that, we’re altering our subscriptions product so that authors may earn more.”
Clarification: The title and text of this item have been amended to reflect that the price would be applied to all virtual assets in Horizon World.
