Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook and CEO of Meta, has launched “Zuck Bucks,” a virtual currency that will help the company’s platforms dependent less on advertising.

According to The Guardian, Meta is trying to build a number of items for their virtual space. To diversify income and attract new users, they include “creator coins.” This is most likely in an attempt to attract customers away from Tiktok, which already has a rewards program in place.

With an existing userbase of 4.9 billion across Instagram and Facebook, Meta remains the social media juggernaut, generating  $118 billion in revenue in 2021.

Tiktok, on the other hand, recently surpassed the billion-user mark.
As per the Financial Times, Meta is now “exploring ways to better monetize its number of users” as a result of emerging players like Tiktok.

Meta is contemplating possibilities such as “creator currencies,” “social tokens,” and “reputation tokens.” This is most likely an attempt to replicate Twitch’s successful tipping system, which allows fans to pay their favorite streamers willingly. Both platforms let users watch content for free, and Tiktok has a similar optional donation system in place.

Facebook has previously ventured into the digital banking sphere. In 2009, Facebook announced Facebook Credits, which could be used to make in-app purchases in games like FarmVille. It was eventually shut down due to the company’s global expansion, which made currency conversions prohibitively expensive.

Meta is also looking into NFT possibilities, with aspirations to interconnect with Instagram and Facebook. Platforms like Twitter currently allow users to use NFTs as profile pictures with hexagon-shaped frames.