Facebook’s parent company Meta has recently launched an online Avatars Store which consists of clothes and other accessories for users’ digital avatars. Prada, Balenciaga, and Thom Browne will be the first digital clothing brands offered by Meta. Taking to his official Facebook account, Mark Zuckerberg said, “We’re launching our Avatars Store on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger so you can buy digital clothes to style your avatar." He further added, “Digital goods will be an important way to express yourself in the metaverse and a big driver of the creative economy." Purchasing clothes for avatars will help the users in expressing themselves. Also, it will get in some money for the company.
Need a fresh fit for your avatar? We're launching our Avatars Store on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger so you can buy digital clothes. Mark Zuckerberg and @evachen212 tried out new looks from @BALENCIAGA @Prada @ThomBrowne ✨https://t.co/7SN0hdYz2D pic.twitter.com/Bp9zeK2ZNl— Meta Newsroom (@MetaNewsroom) June 17, 2022
Meta has been trying to improvise the appearance of its avatars to create the “Metaverse." Earlier this year, the internet giant upgraded its avatars for Facebook and Messenger and added 3D avatars to Instagram. Now, the avatars have faces, skin tones, and accessibility equipment.
The Meta Avatars Store will be available on Facebook, Instagram and Facebook Messenger. This will allow the users to spend real-world money to buy clothes in the digital world. In the beginning, the Meta Avatars Store will come out for users in the US, Canada, Thailand and Mexico.
The new initiative has garnered a lot of criticism online. One person wrote, “Boycott Prada, BALENCIAGA, ThomBrowne for entering such a stupid partnership with such a stupid company." Another person wrote, “Sadly this shit will do more to get people to move on to this. [Redacted] love decorating things that aren’t real." Here are a few reactions:
The point of clothes in virtual worlds are to live fantasies. Like getting a dragon avatar with sexy fairy clothesNot this bland corporate shit https://t.co/yUgZF2OMXp
— 💙💛 Summerium-Kalimium 🇪🇺 (@SummeriumOEP) June 19, 2022
This is so dumb and embarrassing. I can't wait for Facebook and Meta to fail. https://t.co/UhxCglLrhl— Chris Sturr (@ChrisSturr) June 19, 2022
No one wants this. https://t.co/FMLtl7k9F4— Dave Troy 🌻 (@davetroy) June 19, 2022
Remarkable that Balenciaga, Prada and Thom Browne consented to this. https://t.co/hmWl7eAU2y— David Grunwald (@st_eppel) June 19, 2022
I cannot express to you enough how much hatred I feel for the fact they used Mark's face as the model. https://t.co/tvP1h1LHV3— Lightning Larry Lu-Shea-ano 🐌🌹🌅 (@RealSlimSheady_) June 18, 2022
The future has arrived and it’s pretty fucking sad$meta https://t.co/fxObEc9uAM— Rick Bomstein (@BomsteinRick) June 18, 2022
This development comes in as Facebook owner’s shares plunged more than 20 per cent recently. This happened after the social media company posted a weaker-than-expected forecast, blaming Apple’s privacy changes and increased competition for users from rivals like TikTok. Facebook’s global daily active users declined from the previous quarter for the first time, to 1.929 billion from 1.930 billion.
The 18-year-old tech giant, which also faces pressure from platforms like TikTok and Google’s YouTube, said it expected slowing revenue growth in the coming quarter due to increased competition for users’ time and a shift of engagement toward such features as its short video offering Reels, which generate less revenue. Facebook reported 2.91 billion monthly active users in the fourth quarter, showing no growth compared with the previous quarter.
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