Facebook owner Meta Platforms is beginning to test tools for selling digital assets and experiences within its virtual reality platform Horizon Worlds, a key part of its plan for creating a metaverse.
The tools will be available initially to handpicked users who are creating virtual classes, games and fashion accessories within the company’s immersive platform, accessible via VR headsets. Using one tool, those select users will be able to sell their accessories or offer paid access to specialised digital spaces they have built.
Meta’s Horizon Worlds, an expansive VR social platform, and Horizon Venues, which is focused on virtual events, are early iterations of metaverse-like spaces.
The social media giant is also testing out a “creator bonus” program for a small set of Horizon Worlds users in the United States, through which it will pay participants each month for using new features the company launches.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said, “We want there to just be tons of awesome worlds, and in order for that to happen there needs to be a lot of creators who can support themselves and make this their job.”
The Facebook parent company, which changed its name to Meta last year, is competing with up-and-coming virtual world players where land, buildings, avatars and even names can be bought and sold as non-fungible tokens, or blockchain-based virtual assets. The market for these assets exploded last year, with sales sometimes fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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