Meta has launched an online digital clothing store for avatars

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Friday that the company is launching a digital designer clothing store called “Meta Avatar Store”.

Starting with a presentation during an Instagram Live with Instagram VP of Fashion Partnerships Eva Chen, Zuckerberg unveiled the system. It is unknown how many people will actually want to spend money on dressing their avatars in designer clothes, but Zuckerberg sees the new trendy clothing options as a way for users to express themselves through their avatars.

The company is looking for its identity, according to reports, to the point that it will more closely mimic Tiktok to attract new users.

The new one Online shop launches on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger and will allow users to purchase digital clothing for their avatars. The store will start rolling out next week and will initially offer digital ensembles from Balenciaga, Prada and Thom Browne. objective nor disclosed any information pricing for these digital sets. It is worth noting that the free clothing options for Meta avatars will still be available.

Zuckerberg said Meta intends to make the store an open market where developers can create and sell clothes.

“We are launching our avatar shop on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger so that you can shop for digital clothing to shape your avatarZuckerberg said in a statement.

“Digital products will be an important way to express oneself in the metaverse and a great engine of the creative economy. I’m thrilled to add more brands and bring this to virtual reality soon too. “

The Meta Avatars store will begin launching next week in the US, Canada, Thailand and Mexico. The company designs introduce new brands to the store soon.

The announcement comes after Meta worked to improve its avatars by continuing to invest in building the metaverse. Earlier this year, Meta took its 3D avatars to Instagram and released updated avatars on Facebook and Messenger. The update brought more expressions, faces, skin tones, and avatar accessibility devices. The company now also allows users to carry the same avatar across all Meta platforms, including virtual reality.

The “architect” of the new Meta chapter

The multiverse, a virtual universe in which parallel existence can take place, is the creation of Mark Zuckerberg and “It is logical” that it will continue with the project, said Meta’s director of global affairs, Nick Clegg.

At a time when large corporations tend to rotate their leadership, Clegg defended the tenure of Zuckerberg, who is 38 “and has a lot of energy.”

“This is a project of many years. It would be logical for me that Marc Zuckerberg wanted to continue, build this new chapter of this company, and that it will last for many years, many years “Clegg told the AFP agency.

“He is the founder of the company, of Meta, but he is also the architect of the new chapter, of this construction, of these technologies of augmented reality and virtual reality”, explained the executive, who is attending the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. .

Clegg highlighted the vast opportunities for Latin America with the metaverse, such as the fact that, through sophisticated viewers, a teacher can take his students on a tour of ancient Greece or a medical student can perform surgery.

He explained that in the future, access to the metaverse will not be through viewers alone. “Even in the next few years, people will have access to these new technologies on their phones, “he said.

“We are working to explore how we can increase and target this access to everyone and not just the people who can afford the latest and best hardware,” he said.

“Technology by itself cannot solve the inequality that exists in society. But it offers opportunities that did not exist before. In the pandemic, technology has allowed people to work at homesomething that was not possible before, “concluded Clegg.