In a Facebook post this Wednesday, the CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, announced his firm would transition Facebook Pay into Meta Pay, a digital wallet for Metaverse services such as Horizon Worlds.
The change does not affect any platform that supports Facebook Pay for buying traditional goods, such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, although the change introduces new tools that enable Horizon World users to manage their identity, acquire assets, and purchase digital goods.
Supporting Metaverse Interoperability
Meta is using the wallet service to support upcoming Metaverse eCommerce opportunities with a robust security infrastructure to protect purchases.
The CEO added,
“In the future there will be all sorts of digital items you might want to create or buy — digital clothing, art, videos, music, experiences, virtual events, and more. Proof of ownership will be important, especially if you want to take some of these items with you across different services”
According to Zuckerberg, the Menlo Park-based firm will enable the service across various unconfirmed Metaverse platforms. Meta Pay’s security network ensures that when a user signs into a supported Metaverse service, they will retain all acquired goods.
“There’s a long way to get there, but this kind of interoperability will deliver much better experiences for people and larger opportunities for creators”
Meta believes that by integrating third-party Metaverse platforms, the creator economy and content offerings will expand significantly to create more opportunities for extended reality (XR) developers.
Zuckerberg said that giving users more Metaverse spaces to use their digital goods created more value, which “creates a bigger market for creators.”
The CEO also explained that Meta will reduce its intake of content sales until 2024 to support “a future where more people can do creative work they enjoy.”
He concluded,
“We’ll hold off on any revenue sharing on Facebook and Instagram until 2024. That includes paid online events, subscriptions, badges, and bulletins”
Initial Leaks and Shake-Ups
In May, Meta first moved towards a cryptocurrency payment platform as shown in filings from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
According to the initial leak, Meta’s digital payment system will allow for the trading of digital goods, cryptocurrency, blockchain assets, digitized assets, digital tokens, crypto tokens, and utility tokens.
Additionally this month, news emerged revealing that Meta’s Reality Lab XR research division faced an internal shake-up, forcing the company to scale down various upcoming XR projects and prototypes.
Meta is scaling-back projects, including its upcoming Project Nazare augmented reality (AR) smart glasses, to refocus on its Portal for Enterprise device.
