Meta's
Meta posted a blog last week announcing that it will soon begin testing creator sales in its virtual game. That blog didn't include information about the 50% charge, but a Meta spokesperson later revealed the specifics. The fee is comprised of a 30% hardware platform charge for using Meta Quest Store to facilitate sales, as well as an additional 17.5% cut for Horizon Worlds.
"We think it's a pretty competitive rate in the market. We believe in the other platforms being able to have their share," Vice President of Horizon Vivek Sharma told The Verge.
For comparison, other popular marketplaces for digital assets like OpenSea and LooksRare charge fees closer to 2%.
The decision to charge creators nearly half of their sales in fees was immediately met with widespread criticism. Many were quick to point out that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been an outspoken critic of the Apple
"As we build for the metaverse, we're focused on unlocking opportunities for creators to make money from their work," Zuckerberg said in November 2021. "The 30% fees that Apple takes on transactions make it harder to do that, so we're updating our subscriptions product so now creators can earn more."
Apple's Senior Director of Corporate Communication Fred Sainz wrote an email to MarketWatch that Meta's 47.5% fee is "hypocritical".
"Meta has repeatedly taken aim at Apple for charging developers a 30% commission for in-app purchases in the App Store - and have used small businesses and creators as a scapegoat at every turn," Sainz wrote.
"Now - Meta seeks to charge those same creators significantly more than any other platform. [Meta's] announcement lays bare Meta's hypocrisy. It goes to show that while they seek to use Apple's platform for free, they happily take from the creators and small businesses that use their own"' he continued.
A statement from CEO of NFT platform Blockparty Vladislav Ginzburg to MarketWatch underscores the pushback against the fee from potential Horizon World creators.
"Facebook keeps all media uploaded to it, retains all user data and owns every step of the process to sell to marketers. Rather than enable creators to share in the value they bring to Facebook, their goal is to take half of the sale. No thanks."
Horizon Worlds itself is free to use, and The Verge reports that the platform reached 300,000 monthly users in February of this year. Meta says that 10,000 worlds have been created so far. The virtual game was made available in the U.S. and Canada on December 9.
