Mark Zuckerberg seeks new revenue with “Zuck Bucks”, virtual currencies, NFTS and more – DiarioBitcoin

Goal has plans to introduce virtual currencies, tokens and lending services to its apps, as Facebook’s parent company continues to pursue its FinTech ambitions even after the failure of its Libra/Diem cryptocurrency.***

Goal seeks alternate revenue streams and new features to attract and retain users, while the popularity of its core social media products such as Facebook and Instagram show a downward trend, a trend that threatens a $118 billion annual advertising business.

The financial arm of Facebook, Meta Financial Technologieshas been exploring the creation of a virtual currency for the metaverse, which employees internally call “zuck bucks“, according to people connected with these efforts.

It is unlikely to be a blockchain-based cryptocurrency, sources have said, Goal is leaning toward embedding tokens within apps that would be centrally controlled by the company, similar to those used in gaming apps like Robux in the game Roblox.

Social Tokens

According to internal documents and people close to the plans, Goal is also looking into the creation of “Social Tokens” or “Reputation Tokens”, which can be given as rewards for significant contributions in groups of Facebook for example.

Another effort deals with “Creator Coins” that could be associated with influencers particulars in social photo app Instagram.

Goal it has also been exploring traditional financial services, with a focus on helping small businesses provide loans with attractive interest rates, according to several people on the project. Although nothing is planned immediately, the company has been in discussions with potential partners to offer these loans, sources say.

NFTS

Most of the efforts are still in early stages of discussion and may change or be canceled altogether, although plans to integrate non-fungible tokens, NFTs, are much more advanced. Zuckerberg confirmed in the past that Instagram would soon support NFTs.

According to a memo shared internally last week, Goal plans to launch a pilot to post and share NFTs on Facebook in mid-May 2022. This can be followed up immediately with testing functionality that would allow joining groups of Facebook based on the possession of NFTs and other functionality to create (mint) NFTs.

NFTs may be monetized through fees and/or advertising in the future, according to another internal document.

a difficult road

After scandals with Whistleblowers and the publication of the financial results of the last quarter, Goal lost 25% of its capitalization last February, reports revealed that users are spending more and more time on new rival platforms such as TikTok.

Other internal problems reveal that the financial division of Facebook suffered a mass exodus of employees in the last six months, starting with its leader David Marcus who left at the end of last year, followed by key engineers, specialized financial compliance personnel and almost half of the legal team.

Those who remain are looking to create or integrate digital currencies into their metaverse, a virtual world filled with avatars that Zuckerberg hopes will eventually generate billions of dollars in trade in digital goods and services.

refocus

This would not be the first time they have tried to introduce coins to their ecosystem. In 2009 they launched Facebook Credits, a digital currency that allowed users to make in-app purchases, typically in games like FarmVille. Estol came to represent 16% of revenues at the time of FB’s IPO in 2012, according to the Barclays bank that led the IPO, but they had to shut down these efforts in 2013 because costs became too high.

In a memo at the end of January, Stephane Kasriel, the new head of the finance division wrote:

“We are making changes to our product strategy and roadmap…so we can prioritize building for the metaverse and what payments and financial services will look like in this digital world.”

Kasriel said the company would speed up investments in facilitating payments within WhatsApp and Messenger and help creators monetize their activities, for example with NFTs.

They also discussed plans to unite their portfolio of FacebookPay – your non-blockchain peer-to-peer payment portfolio – with I did not seethe digital currency wallet that was supposed to be used to store Libra/Diem.

“The wallet will offer payments, identity and digital asset management within the family of apps and Reality Labs, and over time to other apps/sites”

Decentralization and Web3

Other efforts are part of larger plans to use blockchain technology to introduce more “decentralization” across its platforms, amid the big craze around the Web3 movement, which seeks to use blockchain technologies to give you more control and data privacy. to users, removing from the equation advertising and technology conglomerates that typically monetize users with advertising or tracking.

But Goal seems to be accepting some Web3 ideals, it is exploring whether it makes sense to store information on a blockchain and how to give its users more control over their digital identity and whether their digital identity can be transferred or used across other platforms beyond Goalaccording to a planning document.

The use of social tokens could liberate Goal of that content moderator role and give communities more power and responsibility to moderate themselves.

Article based on report of Financial Times

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