More Than a Quarter of Muse Users Shop With It, and Purchases Average Over $200
Volumes beat expectations in the first week, and Zuckerberg said Plaid had not seen anything like it.
WSJ What's News · Can Meta Turn Muse’s Popularity Into Profits?More than one in four people who use Muse, Meta's direct-to-consumer AI product, use it to shop, with purchases averaging over $200. Mark Zuckerberg of Meta said shopping is Muse's most common use.
Zuckerberg said Plaid, which provides the connector Muse uses, told Meta it had not seen activity like it on any other service. He said "volumes were above what any of us expected" in the first week, so Meta had to work with Stripe, which works with Meta on payment volumes, to raise credit limits.
Questions people ask
What exactly is Muse?
Muse is Meta's consumer AI assistant that can complete tasks for users, including buying things online. Users can ask it to find and purchase products, and it connects to stores and payment systems to check out. Meta presents it as a direct-to-consumer product, separate from its business tools for advertisers.
Why did Meta need Stripe to raise credit limits?
Stripe processes online card payments for many companies, and it sets limits on how much volume a business can charge to guard against fraud and failed payments. When Muse shopping took off in its first week, Meta's sales volume exceeded those preset caps. Raising the limit let the extra purchases go through without being declined.
What does Plaid do in this kind of shopping?
Plaid is a financial technology company whose software links apps to users' bank accounts and cards. In AI shopping, that connection lets the assistant verify funds and pay on the user's behalf. Plaid works with many apps, so its comment suggests Muse generated unusually heavy activity for a new service.