Facebook Pay is becoming Meta Pay. Mark Zuckerberg announced the rebranding on Wednesday, calling the change a “first step” toward Meta creating a digital wallet for its vision of the metaverse. In the immediate future, the software won’t change too much. You can still use it to send your friends and family members money over Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as to pay for purchases and donate to charitable causes.
Moving forward, however, Zuckerberg says he envisions a future where Meta Pay will function as a universal wallet for all the digital items you buy or create in the metaverse. “Proof of ownership will be important, especially if you want to take some of these items with you across different services,” he said. “Ideally, you should be able to sign into any metaverse experience and everything you’ve bought should be right there.”
Put another way, Zuckerberg hopes that Meta Pay becomes the de-facto wallet of the metaverse. He admits the kind of interoperability he’s describing is a long way away but claims it would “deliver much better experiences for people and larger opportunities for creators.” It almost goes without saying, but Meta would almost certainly be the greatest beneficiary of the ecosystem Zuckerberg describes. The company recently confirmed it’s taking a nearly 48 percent cut from digital asset sales in Horizon Worlds. A wallet app is another way for the company to earn money on the back of metaverse creators.
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