Facebook, Pulling A “Fortnite” For Its Upcoming Metaverse

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), has revealed the company’s first big business in the metaverse: selling digital outfits. In his quarterly results presentation, he said his objective would be to incentivize a digital commerce trend, which can reach billion-dollar figures in the next decade.

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Outfit Selling

Zuckerberg also pointed out that, since users will use this digital universe to work, have fun, and interact with others, they will want to personalize their avatars with clothing and virtual items.

Although it is not yet clear how he plans to do it –since he has barely outlined the idea– the digital clothing trade is becoming a very profitable business, especially for companies like Fortnite or Roblox Corp (NYSE:RBLX).

The Epic Games video game has generated an important part of the $9,000 million the company secured in its first two years with the sale of skins –clothes and masks to customize the avatars of the characters.

Facebook is aware of this trend among the younger generations who are more willing to pay to personalize their digital alter egos and consume virtual products and shows. The company is targeting a market it expects could be worth “hundreds of billions of dollars” over the next decade.

What remains unclear is what Facebook will offer in its metaverse proposal to attract users and convince them to interact and buy its products.

Drawing Inspiration

Fortnite and Roblox managed to seduce hundreds of thousands of people thanks to the entertainment linked to video games. Little by little, both platforms have been introducing new forms of leisure such as concerts or virtual exhibitions, and have also become important spaces of social interaction.

When this happens, users will be more willing to spend money to customize their avatars, Zuckerberg says.

So far, the metaverse remains a hazy project with Horizon Workrooms –the virtual reality platform for work that the company unveiled in August– and the smart glasses developed together with Ray-Ban.

In addition to the various investment plans in this regard, Facebook will hire more than 10,000 employees in Europe to develop this new digital horizon. Facebook is part of the Entrepreneur Index, which tracks 60 of the largest publicly traded companies managed by their founders or their founders’ families.

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