Meta will leave you with about half the revenue of a sale in the metaverse

Future. Meta may not like Apple’s and Google’s app store fees, but it has no problem copying them. The company announced that creators on its social metaverse, Horizon World, can now sell virtual goods or experiences… but expect heavy fees to be deducted from every sale. With so much revenue being eaten out of sales, Meta may be sabotaging efforts to supercharge Horizon’s growth right when it needs it most.

Cut of the cut
Meta announced that creators would be able to sell virtual goods in Horizon World. (Because how do you have a metaverse platform and not allow for that?) Users will be able to sell items, effects, VIP experiences… basically, anything that is monetizable… but don’t expect to see most of that money.

• Meta is taking a 25% cut of sales after Apple and Google take their cuts via their respective app stores.
• For example, if Apple takes 30%, Meta will take its cut of the remaining 70%, which will leave sellers with only 52.5% of the revenue (before taxes).
• But what may aggravate users the most is if they’re hosting on the Meta Quest VR system, which also takes 30%.
  • That would mean Meta is taking a whopping 47.5% of a user’s sale.

Vivek Sharma, Meta’s VP of Horizon, believes that the cut is “a pretty competitive rate in the market,” but users may not be keen on building out a late-to-the-game virtual world when the upside is so kneecapped.

If Meta really wanted to turbocharge growth, it may be a smarter move to waive fees on Meta Quest so that users will be incentivized to use it instead of Apple or Google… and make a statement about the price of working on those platforms.