It’s certainly no secret by now that Meta is throwing everything at developing a metaverse, and they aren’t the only ones! Yuga Labs, the company behind the blue-chip NFT project Bored Ape Yacht Club is also looking at developing their own metaverse named Otherside. Therefore, in order to get ahead, Meta has launched another creator monetisation opportunity to encourage more creators and developers to build within Horizon Worlds!
Article Highlights
- Meta has released another monetisation offering to incentivise creators to build within Horizon Worlds
- Why funds on other platforms are falling short in the eyes of creators
- Meta’s in-app purchases within Horizon Worlds and future predictions
What is Horizon Worlds?
So what exactly is Horizon Worlds? Well, fundamentally it is a free to play virtual reality online space which is accessible for Oculus Rift S and Oculus Quest 2 users. The selling point of the platform is the fact users can create, explore, play and have shared virtual experiences with old and new friends around the world. Currently, over 10,000 worlds have been created in Horizon Worlds and the platform is slowly winning over critics who weren’t’ initially blown away when the platform was originally released.
In fact, in February Meta announced there were 300,000 monthly users within Horizon Worlds and that the social experience had been expanded to people in the U.S and Canada last December.
Testing new creator monetization features
Now Meta is incentivising creators to help build worlds as Horizon Worlds tests a creator bonus program. This new program serves as another avenue for creator monetisation within Horizon Worlds, with Meta understanding that to attract and retain talented creators, platforms must first offer revenue opportunities. Interesting to note that back in 2021, Meta announced a $10 million creator fund for individuals and teams of developers to make content within Horizon Worlds.
Meta has said:
“The metaverse—by nature of its not being limited by physical space—will bring a new level of creativity and open up new opportunities for the next generation of creators and businesses to pursue their passions and create livelihoods. Creators and entrepreneurs will have more freedom to find a business model that works for them,”
The new creator bonus program appears to run in a similar way to the Reels bonus program. It is interesting that funds continue to be utilised by platforms with TikTok’s own creator fund falling short. Creators have stated the more people reach the minimum requirements to benefit from the TikTok fund, the smaller the payouts. The crux of the issue of funds is the more creators the lesser the payouts, even when creators experience significant growth in their audience, funds fall short as short-form video funds typically work off a cost per 1000 views structure.
It’s not just TikTok creators expressing issues with funds, creators across Instagram have reported smaller payouts whilst seeing view count requirements go up for eligibility for the fund. Regardless, it appears Meta is pushing forward with creator incentives within Horizon Worlds, with Meta describing the new bonus program as an expansion of the initial Horizon Worlds creator fund. According to VP of Horizon Worlds Vivek Sharma, the program will be goal-oriented that allow creators to earn payments based on the engagement their worlds generate.
In-app Purchases on Meta
Horizon Worlds will also be looking towards virtual goods, with creators being able to sell wearable items for their virtual avatars in the virtual world, as well as access to VIP sections of created worlds and in-game objects/items. Worth noting that the ability to sell items will only be available for some creators at present and Meta will be taking a cut of all in-app purchases.
What Is Next For Horizon Worlds
If we look at games such as Roblox, Minecraft and Fortnite, they have experienced huge success in areas such as shared world-building, in-game purchases and virtual social experiences. For Horizon Worlds to succeed the platform must look to the success of the above games whilst also offering something new that helps connect people in a virtual world. The metaverse is still not fully realized and the race to be the first is Meta’s primary goal, which is cemented in the company’s name change last year.
Meta has technology on its side with VR headsets and the company investing in exciting tech such as haptic gloves to bridge to gap between the real world and the virtual one. However, Meta’s challenge is the very decision to create a metaverse and find a place in a web3 future. At Meta’s very core it represents everything a web3 future wants to leave behind, in this new iteration of the internet the control is not in the hands of huge companies but in the everyday user.
Looking to the future it will be important to watch closely how other metaverse projects develop such as Decentraland and Yuga Lab’s Otherside. What will Meta do in response should the other players take the lead? Our bet is the acquisition of competitors or direct replication of features and experiences! What we do know is Meta is investing heavily in Horizon Worlds and this is just the start of initiatives to attract creators and users!
If you want to read more about the metaverse and the future of marketing, check out our Metaverse Marketing blog and our breakdown of virtual influencers.
Don’t forget you can follow us on Linkedin, Instagram and Twitter for real-time announcements of all our new blog content!
