Hello readers, and welcome back to Week in Review!

Last week, I talked about Apple and crypto. This week, we're talking about Apple clashing with Meta over their metaverse taxes.

After sending out hundreds of these newsletters, next week will sadly be my last time sending out Week in Review -- but more excitingly it will also be my first time sending out my new crypto newsletter Chain Reaction, so if you like my ramblings, please follow me on Twitter and subscribe to Chain Reaction!!!

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Image Credits: Meta

the big thing

If any of my ramblings in this newsletter have taught you one thing about the metaverse, it's that a coherent view of it doesn't really exist. The purest form of it is probably best seen in the undying jealousy Facebook holds for Roblox and Meta's desire to recreate that tweenage empire and bring billions of users to it.

This week, we got a taste of how exactly Facebook hopes to monetize its looming metaverse dreams.

We learned that Meta will begin allowing goods to be sold in Horizon Worlds, its latest social VR app which it hopes to grow into a multitrillion-dollar empire. The controversial note will be that Facebook will take a 25% cut of goods sold on the platform, which doesn't sound all that problematic until you learn those goods will also separately be taxed by a 30% cut taken from the Oculus Store. Taken together, it means that virtual goods sold on the Horizon platform in VR will come with a whopping 47.5% tax attached to them.