Build an App… But Not for Meta

In August of 2020, Apple was under heat for their 30% cut of every app in the App Store. More specifically, Epic Games was very upset that young children couldn’t charge their parent’s cards for V-Bucks inside of Fortnite. And keep 100% of profits. 

Mark Zuckerberg decided that Meta (formerly Facebook) wouldn’t take 30% of developers’ earnings for posting apps on Meta’s Metaverse platform. 

“As we build for the metaverse, we’re focused on unlocking opportunities for creators to make money from their work,” he said. “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.”

So what did Zuckerberg and Meta do to solve this problem? A Meta spokesperson told CNBC“that Meta will take an overall cut of up to 47.5% on each transaction. That includes a ‘hardware platform fee’ of 30% for sales made through the Meta Quest Store, where it sells apps and games for its virtual reality headsets. On top of that, Horizon Worlds will charge a 17.5% fee.”

With Zuckerberg publicly calling out Apple, it seems a bit hypocritical. However, Meta’s VP of Horizon, Vivek Sharma, told The Verge, “We think it’s a pretty competitive rate in the market. We believe in the other platforms being able to have their share.” 

Their words seem kind enough, but taking nearly half of the pie from developers isn’t precisely what we call “fair.” With that being said, there aren’t plenty of other ordinary consumer headsets like the Meta Quest. That means Meta will be not only setting the expectation for developers’ pay but also the only real place to go to have your game or app seen. 

If you are planning on making a game for Meta, or even just a productive VR app, plan on Meta taking a chunk.