Key Takeaways
- • Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told analysts on the October 21 earnings call that more than 10 million users in Canada and the U.S. have set up Muse agents since launch on September 8, a figure he said was more than twice the early adoption level of Threads.
- • One-quarter of Muse adopters use the agent daily, with shopping the most common use case and an average purchase size above $200.
- • Demand was high enough that Meta had to work with payment processor Stripe to raise credit limits during the first week, though the new limits were not quantified.
- • Meta plans to charge businesses a fee when Muse helps complete a sale, a potential new revenue stream beyond advertising, which generated $63.1 billion in Q3.
- • Muse is compute-intensive: Meta reported roughly $35 billion in Q3 capex and negative free cash flow of $2.1 billion, with full-year capex guided to $135 billion to $145 billion.
Summary
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told analysts on the company's October 21 earnings call that more than 10 million users in Canada and the United States have set up Muse, the personal AI agent Meta rolled out on September 8. Zuckerberg said this adoption was more than twice the level at which Threads started, and at a level above where he believes other AI apps began. According to Zuckerberg, one-quarter of Muse adopters use the agent daily, and shopping is the most common use case, with an average purchase size exceeding $200.
Demand was strong enough that Meta had to work with payment processor Stripe to raise credit limits during the first week of availability. Zuckerberg said volumes were "above what any of us expected." He did not specify the size of the increase. Meta had partnered with Stripe to enable Muse purchases from launch. Meta did not respond to Fortune's request for comment, and Stripe declined to comment.
The shopping activity points to a new monetization path. Rather than relying solely on advertising, which generated $63.1 billion in Q3, Meta plans to charge businesses a fee when Muse helps complete a sale. Consumers can use the agent free of charge unless they choose more tokens or advanced models. Zuckerberg said Meta earns "several hundreds of dollars annually" per American user from its family of apps and expects Muse to raise revenue per user as commerce grows. Meta CFO Susan Li said the company is working with partners including Shopify and Walmart on a standard called the Personal Agent Protocol, which would define how consumer agents interact securely with business agents. Li acknowledged adoption "will likely be uneven" among businesses wary of ceding customer relationships.
The economics remain a constraint. Meta spent almost $35 billion on capital expenditures in Q3 and reported negative free cash flow of $2.1 billion, according to its earnings report. Li said full-year capex is expected at $135 billion to $145 billion, compared with $72.2 billion last year. Zuckerberg said Muse's computing demands are partly why the launch is limited to the U.S. and Canada, and that Meta expects to improve cost efficiency by more than 10x within a year. He also said Meta will begin monetizing Muse earlier than its usual playbook, adding, "we will be able to build a model where we get a percent of the value that we are helping to create for people."
Demand was strong enough that Meta had to work with payment processor Stripe to raise credit limits during the first week of availability. Zuckerberg said volumes were "above what any of us expected." He did not specify the size of the increase. Meta had partnered with Stripe to enable Muse purchases from launch. Meta did not respond to Fortune's request for comment, and Stripe declined to comment.
The shopping activity points to a new monetization path. Rather than relying solely on advertising, which generated $63.1 billion in Q3, Meta plans to charge businesses a fee when Muse helps complete a sale. Consumers can use the agent free of charge unless they choose more tokens or advanced models. Zuckerberg said Meta earns "several hundreds of dollars annually" per American user from its family of apps and expects Muse to raise revenue per user as commerce grows. Meta CFO Susan Li said the company is working with partners including Shopify and Walmart on a standard called the Personal Agent Protocol, which would define how consumer agents interact securely with business agents. Li acknowledged adoption "will likely be uneven" among businesses wary of ceding customer relationships.
The economics remain a constraint. Meta spent almost $35 billion on capital expenditures in Q3 and reported negative free cash flow of $2.1 billion, according to its earnings report. Li said full-year capex is expected at $135 billion to $145 billion, compared with $72.2 billion last year. Zuckerberg said Muse's computing demands are partly why the launch is limited to the U.S. and Canada, and that Meta expects to improve cost efficiency by more than 10x within a year. He also said Meta will begin monetizing Muse earlier than its usual playbook, adding, "we will be able to build a model where we get a percent of the value that we are helping to create for people."
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