Apple Slams Meta for 'Hypocrisy' on Metaverse Fees

pcmag.com:

As Meta sets up fees for metaverse creators that will take nearly half of their earnings, Apple argues that the move is hypocritical given the social network's attacks on Apple's 30% fee. 

Earlier this week, Facebook parent company Meta announced plans to extend the options available to creators for selling virtual assets in its metaverse. But the company plans to take a 25% cut of those sales, on top of the 30% cut it already takes on sales through its Meta Quest platform. In total, Meta will be taking 47.5% of digital content creators' sales.

The move, according to Apple, "lays bare Meta’s hypocrisy."

"Meta has repeatedly taken aim at Apple for charging developers a 30% commission for in-app purchases in the App Store," Apple spokesman Fred Sainz tells Marketwatch. "Now, Meta seeks to charge those same creators significantly more than any other platform."

In November, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Facebook that the company "is focused on unlocking opportunities for creators to make money from their work. The 30% fees that Apple takes on transactions make it harder to do that."

At the time, Zuckerberg teased promotional links for creators for their Subscriptions offerings, from which Facebook would not take a cut, and talked up a previously announced $1 billion creator invesment. Earlier that year, Facebook also said it would keep paid online events, fan subscriptions, badges, and upcoming independent news products commission-free until 2023.

All bets are off in the metaverse, though, apparently. Currently, Meta has a strong footprint there; Meta’s Quest 2 had an estimated 78% of the market in 2021, according to IDC. While Apple isn’t competing directly in the AR/VR space yet, an Apple headset has long been