The parent company of the world’s largest social media platforms – Meta Platforms – appears to be getting ready to open up its doors for creators to start developing content and digital assets in its metaverse.
According to an exclusive report from Reuters published yesterday, Meta has started to test some tools that will allow creators to sell digital “experiences” on its virtual reality platform called Horizon Worlds.
During an event that took place within this virtual universe, the head of the company – Mark Zuckerberg – said that he wanted to make available “tons of awesome worlds” and indicated that creators were welcomed and needed to make that happen.
Horizon Worlds relies on devices such as Oculus Quest 2 to allow people to interact with each other in the virtual realm. The cost of the Quest 2 device is $299 for the 128GB version and $399 for the 256MB model.
Meta appears to be accelerating its efforts to make the metaverse more mainstream as competition in the space is heating up with platforms such as Decentraland – a blockchain-based metaverse – already gaining some traction.
What Is the Metaverse and How Can Creators Make Money Out of It?
The metaverse is a virtual realm in which users can interact with each other in different ambiances. During the pandemic, the appeal of a digital ecosystem such as this increased as companies identified huge opportunities within it if individuals are allowed to interact with each other without leaving their homes.
Also read: Top Metaverse Stocks to Invest in 2022
Meta Platforms – formerly known as Facebook – has been one of the biggest companies to make a decisive pivot toward the development of such a technology and the race appears to have started to see who becomes the leading player in this up-and-coming industry.
In the metaverse, independent creators are responsible for developing “experiences” that users can engage with as part of their journey. This involves building spaces where people can hang out, play, meet, and do all sorts of things.
Money can be made by charging people for entering and enjoying these experiences and digital goods, memberships, and assets can also be sold.
This is what Meta appears to be focusing on at the moment at its Horizon Worlds platform. Media outlets have stated that the company could take a 25% cut out of the revenues earned by creators and it is also possible that a virtual currency will be used to settle transactions within the platform.
Other Metaverse Platforms Have Already Made Significant Progress
Apart from Meta Platforms, other companies have already created money-making digital realms. This is a summary of some of Meta’s competitors in the race to become the go-to metaverse.
Decentraland
Decentraland is a blockchain-based metaverse that has created a decentralized value proposition involving the purchase of land parcels and the use of a crypto asset to make purchases within the ecosystem. According to the co-founder of the platform, Ari Meillich, the platform had around 300,000 monthly active users by the end of 2021.
Creators can charge users for enjoying the experiences they have designed in this digital world and they can also create and sell assets within the platform. These digital goods are known as non-fungible tokens (NFT) and, once minted on the blockchain, they give the buyer ownership over the asset.
Roblox
Roblox is a platform powered by a community of creators who develop games primarily for a large audience of around 43.2 million daily active users from around the globe.
Roblox is a public company. Its stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol RBLX and had a market capitalization of $25.87 billion as of yesterday. The firm reportedly pays from 25 to 30 cents on the dollar to creators for in-app purchases.
Read more: Meta to Add NFTs to Instagram And Facebook
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