According to The Wall Street Journal, Meta plans to open Horizon World to users aged 13 to 17. In an internal memo seen by the outlet, Meta said it hopes to offer its VR-based social platform to younger users as early as next month.
The company first opened up the Horizon world to users 18 and older in 2021, but has since struggled to bring users back to the platform. Last October, The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta had lowered its goal of reaching 500,000 monthly active users by the end of the year to 280,000, and that most users would not return after using it for a month. As The Verge’s Alex Heath reported last year, even the employees working on the service don’t use it very often.
Now it seems like Meta is banking on a younger user base to help revive its flagship VR app. According to reports, Gabriel Aul, vice president of services at Meta, wrote in this recent note that user retention is the team’s top priority in the first half of 2023, and he’s especially looking to target teens and young adults. The Wall Street Journal notes that in January, only about one in nine Horizon World users returned to the platform the following month.
While Meta is trying to make Horizon Worlds as compelling as the hugely popular Minecraft, Roblox, and Fortnite, the service still has a long way to go to create a complete and fully functional platform. Meta has been slow to add new features to Horizon so far; last month they just deployed a dedicated “jump” button and are still working on creating legs for their avatar.
“Today, our competitors are doing a better job of meeting the unique needs of these groups,” Gabriel Orr said in a memo obtained by The Wall Street Journal. “For Horizon to be successful, we need to first make sure we’re serving this group.”
Meta has since raised its user growth targets and now reportedly hopes to reach 500,000 monthly active users in the first half of 2023 and 1 million by the end of the year. The company also plans to launch a “2D” version of the Metaverse for desktop and mobile devices, possibly in the first half of this year, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The company has yet to confirm either of these plans, but has just announced that it is extending its content rating policy to events hosted by Horizon Worlds. It now requires creators to tag their worlds as “18+” or “All” so that “people know what to expect when they attend an event.”
Meta spokesman Joe Osborne told the Wall Street Journal that “teens are already spending time on the Quest in a variety of virtual reality settings” and the company wants to make sure it can “use age-appropriate tools and safety measures” at the WSJ. there is a “great experience” in Horizon Worlds. The meta did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.
While Reality Labs continues to lose billions in the Metaverse (and plans to lose more), it hasn’t given up on its VR ambitions yet. Last month, Meta added a new moderation feature to Horizon Worlds and began testing member-only worlds that restrict access to the world to certain communities.
While Meta says these worlds could be good for book clubs and gaming groups, it risks selling these more limited spaces to a younger user base. The company is also starting to work on “personal spaces,” a kind of private virtual home where you can hang out with a small group of friends by invitation only.
Post time: Feb-08-2023