Meta Starts Building a Digital Economy for Creators in Horizon Worlds

Meta Platforms’ (FB) digital economy got rolling Monday with new tools for hawking virtual goods in the social media giant’s virtual reality game, Horizon Worlds.

A “handful” of creators will be able to sell “virtual items and effects” in their respective worlds, Meta said. Only Americans and Canadians above the age of 18 will be able to purchase those items.

Separately, Meta said it would reward creators whose virtual worlds prove especially popular among users with monthly bonus payouts. That program will not be subject to fees; the virtual items marketplace could see Meta take a cut of anywhere from 25% to 70%, according to The Verge.

The twin efforts showcase Meta’s early buildout of the infrastructure underpinning a digital economy. Yet more monetization and incentivization features are on the way, it promised.

“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,” a Meta blog post read.

“Clearly the ability to sell virtual goods and be able to take them with you from one world to another is going to be an important part” of the future metaverse, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video published alongside the reveal.

That language mimics the promise of user-owned non-fungible tokens (NFT). But Meta’s monetization tools don’t have any crypto element to them – at least not yet.