Meta is investing all its resources in the creation of its Metaverse and in the growth of users who will popularize it. In this article, we explain what Horizon Worlds is and why 300,000 users (and 10,000 worlds) are already part of it.
What is Horizon
Presented during Oculus Connect 6, Facebook Horizon has been defined as "the metaverse of Facebook" an ecosystem of three-dimensional virtual worlds, accessible in virtual reality, where people can meet, via avatars, to work, socialize, play, watch events. At the moment this ecosystem is divided into:
- Horizon Home: or rather the "starting point" in the Meta metaverse. the first thing the user will encounter when wearing the Quest headset. A real Home (as it was called until recently in Oculus), from which it will be possible to access the various applications and virtual worlds and which will become a real "living room" in which it will become possible to invite friends to talk, watch videos and immerse themselves in the various games together.
- Horizon Venues: the application that allows you to enjoy the energy of live events from the comfort of your home and in the company of your friends.
- Horizon Worksroom: the flagship solution for productivity and work. In this app, work teams can meet to share presentations or discussions. We talked about it here.
- Horizon Worlds: a real "social VR world", where people can meet, play and socialize, exploring and expanding it through the construction of worlds.
How Horizon Worlds works
The goal of Horizon Worlds is to allow users to participate in the evolution and construction of the Meta Metaverse, thanks to tools that will allow them to create customized scenarios and attractions. In addition to navigable VR spaces, Horizon Worlds integrates ready-to-use VR building components such as blocks of code, sounds and animation effects to help content creators expand this virtual world.
In Horizon Worlds, creators and VR users can meet to collaborate and participate in shared experiences, as well as become part of a growing virtual community. When you log into the application, after a short tutorial, you are presented with three options: games, events and exit the application. You can explore experiences created by Meta itself or worlds and experiences generated by the community, which anyone can build from scratch.
Distinction between creators and users in Meta Horizon Worlds
Within Meta Horizon Worlds, users can navigate the worlds as they are and enjoy the experiences already present, however a common user can decide to start using the platform's tools to develop content, thus becoming a creators. The creators are essentially designers of the VR world, with a certain degree of technical skills, and own the intellectual property rights on the contents they create: Meta can decide to integrate the contents created by users into their experiences and in this way aims to respect and protect the rights of creators.
Monetization: the sale of digital assets within Horizon Worlds
To allow the world to populate itself, creators to make money and Meta to monetize thanks to the percentages withheld on sales, Horizon Worlds is testing new tools that will allow creators to> sell their items within the virtual world and, one day, to make a living. For example, I will be able to create and sell accessories for a fashion world or offer paid access to a new part of a world. To date, only some creators (including adults residing in the USA and Canada) will be able to test the new tools and start selling their creations.
In addition to introducing shopping to the virtual world, Meta is starting to test the Horizon Worlds Creator Bonus program. always in the United States. These bonuses come in the form of monthly goal-oriented programs for which creators are paid at the end of the month, with no commissions. For now, in this testing phase, creators will be rewarded for creating worlds based on the time users spend within them, but over time these goals will likely evolve encouraging creators to adopt new tools or features that Horizon Worlds will implement.
To date, access to Meta Horizon World is limited to US users and beta testers in the rest of the world, although it already has 300,000 active users and 10,00 created worlds. Probably once Horizon is available to the general public and has a good number of users, companies will compete to build their own world within it, as has happened with corporate Facebook pages. In a similar context, the monetization possibilities for users and companies are very interesting, from the creation of salable content to the creation of services for virtual users, up to the organization of public events that can only be used in VR through the platform. . One thing is certain, Meta Horizon World will allow companies to get in touch with a new target: communities of virtual avatars.
Do you want to know more about metaverse opportunities? Request a free consultation.