Mark Zuckerberg's Meta enters the prediction markets fray

• Mark Zuckerberg has instructed the team at Meta Platforms to build a new app focused on prediction markets and event contracts
• The app is not going to accept real cash, the New York Times reported, but rather use a video game-inspired point system
• Meta is facing limitations within its current social media apps, which are increasingly shifting to video content, and wants to build new platforms to capitalize on emerging social behavior

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, the owner of Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and more, has instructed staff to now enter the prediction market fray and develop a dedicated app, the NewYork Times reported on Tuesday, June 23.

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CNBC, another media outlet, also confirmed these plans independently, citing a person close to the matter who agreed to share details on condition of anonymity, immediately revealing one major difference in how Meta Platforms is approaching its new venture.

The upcoming project will not ask users to stake real cash to speculate on future events, but rather create an in-game currency, or a point system, CNBC explains, modeled after video games.

The app is called "Arena," two sources told the New York Times, and it will run as a separate venture from the company’s Instagram and Facebook social media platforms, but benefit from the vast user audiences cultivated on those media.

Meta is commanding an eye-watering user base of 3.56bn people every day across its social media apps, and Zuckerberg, a self-professed adrenaline junky, has been actively pursuing the opportunity to create new types of apps that are seeking to get ahead of social behavior and capitalize on it.

The app will be available on smartphones, the sources said, and be similar to what Polymarket and Kalshi have built, although it would seek to gamify and engage rather than seek to make profit off wagers outright.

Meta seeks to avoid legal clash over prediction markets with "video game" point system

One of the reasons why Meta is pushing beyond its bulwark social media is reportedly an internal realization that Facebook and Instagram are increasingly shifting to video content and that applies its own constraints on testing new products within that ecosystem, prompting the company to look for outright alternatives.

By sticking to "gamification" and creating a mock currency or a video game point system, as the company reportedly puts it, Meta is getting ahead of current events, with mainstream prediction market platforms facing increased scrutiny from regulators, and potentially leveraging its user base in new ways, driving engagement, ad revenue, and further integration within the company’s sprawling ecosystem.

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