Meta to Charge 47.5% Commission From Every NFT Sale in Its Metaverse

Quick take:

• Meta announced that it would be charging a whopping 47.5% cut from every virtual asset sale in its metaverse.
• The 47.5% charges include 30% for the Meta Quest store and a 17.5% fee.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, plans to charge up to 47.5% of fees from every digital assets sale on its marketplace called Horizon Worlds.

On Monday, the company announced that it would allow the creators of Horizon World to sell virtual assets within their world. They neglected to mention the charges in the announcement. 

The best way to disappoint creators

A spokesperson from Meta announced to CNBC that Meta would take a cut of up to 47.5% on each sale. The charges include 30% for the sales made through the Meta Quest store and an additional 17.5% fees by Horizon world.

The NFT community has been quite angry ever since the announcement. One user said,  “If Meta wants 47.5% of NFT sales, they gotta talk to the IRS because I don’t even have that after taxes.”

On the contrary OpenSea charges a 2.5% cut, and LooksRare charges 2%. Meta’s VP of Horizon, Vivek Sharma, told Verge, “We think it’s a pretty competitive rate in the market. We believe in the other platforms being able to have their share.”

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, and other Meta executives have previously chastised Apple for charging developers a 30% charge for in-app purchases made through the App Store.

Zuckerberg stated in November that his business would aim to assist metaverse producers in avoiding Apple's App Store charge. “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.”

Now Meta is charging higher than Apple. A bold move from Zuck after his previous statements.