Meta has expanded the Horizon Worlds metaverse to Spain and France. Now citizens of these European countries aged 18 and older can also experience the world with Virtual Reality (VR).

Meta expands its Horizon Worlds metaverse to Spain and France

CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, announced the new expansion of the Horizon Worlds metaverse for citizens aged 18 and older in Spain and France through a post on Facebook’s social network.

According to reports, Horizon Worlds will also welcome new users aged 18 and older from Spain and France this week, implementing new steps in its expansion plan in Europe planned for this year.

And indeed, while in 2020 the app was available by invitation only, in December 2021 it opened its services to the public for the US and Canadian markets, and in this 2022 expansion saw the UK, Ireland and Iceland. 

Now, therefore, Spanish and French people will also be able to take advantage of this service using one of the VR headsets sold by the company.

Meta and the evolution of features in its Horizon Worlds metaverse

Listed in the announcement were a number of features that Horizon Worlds offers in its metaverse. 

From action-packed games to quiet places ideal for meditation, or even a comedy club in which to get on stage and try out dad jokes in front of an audience, a bowling alley in which to have fun with friends, or a place to meet different people and lifestyles.

The latest gimmick was to make Horizon Home’s immersive VR experiences more social. Launched in June 2022, this feature is intended to allow users wearing the Meta Quest headset to share their immersive experiences with friends and family as well. 

On Meta Quest, therefore, it is possible to hang out with others, watch movies together, and launch multiplayer games from Meta Horizon Home. 

The monetization of digital objects

Another feature Meta tested in April was the monetization of digital objects by its creators through Horizon Worlds. 

This involves the actual sale of these created objects, which would make it possible in the future for creators to earn a living through such activity. 

The test took place in the US and Canada and initially involved only a few creators who began selling virtual objects and effects within their worlds. 

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New features and an extension to UK citizens for Horizon Worlds, Meta’s metaverse, which is starting to gain momentum.

The new features of Horizon Worlds

Meta announced in recent days a new feature related to voice settings for its users of Horizon Worlds, the virtual world in the metaverse. 

Launching in the next few weeks, the feature allows users to choose how to listen to people who are not on their friends list, including the option to turn off unwanted conversations completely.

Meta is said to have created this feature to offer its users additional security and comfort in what still appears to many as a big mystery. As Facebook engineers explained, when voice mode is activated, people who are not on one’s friends list or in one’s virtual group will see an icon indicating that a user has the possibility of muting them.

A company blog post reads:

“so they don’t feel like you’re ignoring them”.

To temporarily disrupt someone’s speech without having to add them as a new friend, simply bring the controller close to their ear.

Meta’s ‘personal boundary’ function

In March this year, Meta introduced another function called ‘personal boundary’, which again aims to increase the privacy and security of the virtual world and its users. This function allows a kind of distancing between unknown users, to avoid unpleasant incidents, which had already taken place in the past in the metaverse.

The option is also active by default for those who are considered ‘strangers’. This had been the consequence of a complaint by one user (avatar) about having been groped by a stranger, and that of a second who claimed to have been gang-raped.

Last April, Zuckerberg’s company announced that it was testing new tools to allow its Horizon Worlds users to monetize their presence in the virtual world by selling virtual goods or services to the community that frequents the virtual space.

Moreover, as of next week, the field of possible participants in Horizon Worlds is widening. After having launched the service in December for the US and Canada, it will now also be available for British users and probably after the summer for all European citizens.

A statement on the company blog reads:

“From the very beginning, we’ve envisioned Horizon Worlds as a creator-friendly VR environment featuring top tier social world-building tools. And by developing those tools and listening to and incorporating feedback from creators, that’s just what it is. But we’re always working to make it even better. For example, last month we launched our first asset library, a collection of pre-made items that creators can use any time they want. Plus, we’ve also committed $10 million USD to help creators get their worlds off the ground”.

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Meta, Facebook’s parent company, will charge creators of virtual goods that can be sold on the Horizon Worlds platform a 47.5% tax, almost half of their earnings. 

Meta and the fees of Horizon World’s creators

On Monday, Mark Zuckerberg’s company, Meta, had announced its testing of innovative tools that will allow creators of virtual goods to be able to sell them on the Horizon Worlds platform, earning real money. 

Something that Zuckerberg himself would like to see in the long run as a chance for the creators of the metaverse to earn a living by selling their creations directly. 

Unfortunately, the announcement did not specify commissions on such earnings. In fact, it seems that Meta will charge about 47.5% on sales of goods and digital experiences made within the virtual reality platform Horizon Worlds.

Specifically, that’s a 30% fee on the hardware platform for sales made through the Meta Quest Store, where apps and games intended for its virtual reality headset are sold, and a further 17.5% cut as fees from the Horizon platform. 

The sky-high fees for creators 

JUST IN: Meta (Facebook) plans to take a 47.5% cut on each #NFT sale on its virtual reality platform Horizon Worlds.

— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) April 13, 2022

“JUST IN: Meta (Facebook) plans to take a 47.5% cut on each #NFT sale on its virtual reality platform Horizon Worlds”.

The news about Meta’s mind-boggling fees, has been much criticized on the web. CEO of Meta, Zuckerberg, has been a critic of Apple Inc’s 30% app store fees, yet Meta’s latest move to charge creators almost half of their sales on its platform has angered many.

In this regard, Meta’s Horizon vice-president Vivek Sharma responded to the criticism as follows:

“These types of tools are steps toward our long-term vision for the metaverse where creators can earn a living and people can purchase digital goods, services, and experiences”.

The importance of information in the metaverse

According to an Akeneo report involving 1,800 UK consumers, it appears that the demand for information in the metaverse, especially retail, is clearly growing. 

72% of respondents reportedly use multiple sources when researching a product and deciding what to buy, while a further 81% started researching a product in-store and then bought it. 

These data on shopper behaviour lead us to understand just how fundamental product information is, including digital and virtual information. 

Looking at the survey, it seems that more than half of UK consumers interested in the metaverse would be inclined to

• abandoning a purchase due to poor product information and
• abandoning a brand due to lack of trust caused by poor product information.

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Meta, Mark Zuckerberg’s company, has announced that it is testing tools to allow Horizon Worlds creators to monetize in the metaverse by selling virtual goods and services. 

Meta will enable the sale of virtual goods in Horizon Worlds

According to what was announced yesterday, Meta is testing several new tools that will allow creators to experiment with different ways to monetize what they are building in Horizon Worlds. 

The beginning of something long-term, according to billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s company, that will be able to give the creators of the metaverse a chance to earn a living.

Not only that, in order to achieve that goal, Meta also reportedly plans to further expand its $10 million Horizon Creators Fund, which was announced last October. 

At the moment, only a few creators will be able to test the new tools and start selling virtual objects and effects within their worlds. The purchase of such items in Horizon Worlds will initially be available to people of legal age in the US and Canada. 

Meta and the metaverse creator bonus program

In addition to being able to purchase in-world items, the company announced that it is also testing a dedicated bonus program for Horizon Worlds creators for participants in the US.

These are monthly payments that creators will receive for reaching certain goals. At the moment, creators will be rewarded for building worlds that attract the most time spent. 

On this subject, in a video recorded in virtual reality, Zuckerberg 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 announcement does not specify in what currency the creators of the metaverse will be paid, however, a week ago, Meta said it is exploring ‘Zuck Bucks’, the virtual currency for the metaverse. 

The Metaverse: a trillion dollar industry by 2024

Many are analyzing and making future predictions about the growth of the Metaverse industry. 

Tim Frost, founder and CEO of Yield App, said:

“The metaverse is one of the most exciting prospects to emerge from Blockchain technology in recent times. While the idea of living our lives in a virtual playground is terrifying for some, the potential of this virtual world is plain to see. Currently valued at around $47 billion, the metaverse will reach 1 trillion well before 2024, as is currently predicted”.

Continuing in his statement, Frost says that the Metaverse’s possibilities of interest affect several sectors such as gaming or real estate. And, on the latter, Frost mentions Decentraland and The Sandbox, the two metaverse on blockchain that are breaking records in their LAND sales. 

Looking to the future, Frost predicts that every digital asset company worthy of the name will have to have real estate in the metaverse, just as in the past, every serious bank had its address on Wall Street. 

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