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Facebook is reportedly also getting into NFTs and providing small business loans.
Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram (opens in new tab), apparently has plans to introduce its own in-app digital currency that employees have started calling ‘Zuck Bucks.’ The company is reportedly working on several new financial endeavors like offering small business loans and NFT integration on Facebook.
According to a report in the Financial Times (opens in new tab), Zuck Bucks (a nickname that refers to Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg), isn’t going to be a cryptocurrency working off the blockchain. It’ll be a centrally controlled in-app token, which the report likens to what you found in online games like Roblox (opens in new tab).
It would work like Facebook Credits back in the day, which was its virtual currency used to buy stuff in FarmVille. Facebook shuttered Facebook Credits back in 2013 after it was deemed too costly to maintain (opens in new tab). Remember FarmVille? It’s still around, but you no longer need a Facebook account to play it (opens in new tab).
Meta is looking into «social tokens,» which can be rewarded to users who make «meaningful contributions to Facebook groups.» According to internal documents, the idea is that users who make credible content can be given tokens as payment, allowing Meta to step away from being a content moderator and giving Facebook communities more power in moderating themselves. ‘Creator coins’ is another digital currency tied to specific influencers on Instagram.
Meta isn’t shying away from the blockchain despite recently killing off its Diem (formerly Libra) cryptocurrency project (opens in new tab) before it even launched earlier this year. A pilot program will launch in May to let you post and share NFTs on Facebook. Next will be testing a feature allowing memberships to NFT owning and minting groups on Facebook. The plan is for Meta to monetize the sales of NFTs on Facebook via «fees and/or ads.»
A Meta rep told The Verge (opens in new tab), “We continuously consider new product innovations for people, businesses, and creators. As a company, we are focused on building for the metaverse, including what payments and financial services might look like.”
Meta has suffered record losses (opens in new tab) since the rebrand for various reasons, from Facebook’s dwindling popularity among young people to rivals like TikTok (opens in new tab) to Google’s privacy change limiting Facebook’s data tracking (opens in new tab). It makes sense. It explores new avenues of revenue just in case the whole Metaverse thing doesn’t work out. (opens in new tab)
Jorge is a hardware writer from the enchanted lands of New Jersey. When he’s not filling the office with the smell of Pop-Tarts, he’s reviewing all sorts of gaming hardware from laptops with the latest mobile GPUs to gaming chairs with built-in back massagers. He’s been covering games and tech for nearly ten years and has written for Dualshockers, WCCFtech, and Tom’s Guide.
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