Meta launched its new AI assistant, Muse, just six weeks ago, and it is already a massive hit. During the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, Meta confirmed estimates that over 10 million people have already signed up for the app.
However, these impressive numbers come solely from the US and Canada. Interestingly, Meta has been unable to launch Muse in other markets, particularly in India.Given how viral Muse is inside the select markets where it is currently operating, it is but obvious to ask, what’s stopping Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg bringing it to more markets.
Well, we have the answer now though if you’ve waiting patiently for a timeline, there is bad news. Meta seems to be in no hurry to launch Muse in India.Why Muse isn't launching in India just yetIf Muse is doing so incredibly well, why isn't it available to the rest of the world?
The simple answer is the massive cost of computing power. Running an advanced AI agent is an incredibly expensive operation, and Meta wants to get the underlying economics right before opening the floodgates.During the earnings call, Zuckerberg explained that the computing power required to keep Muse running is currently the biggest roadblock preventing a wider release.
He stated, “Right now for Muse, one of the things I pointed out is we have more than 10 million people in the US and Canada who have set it up. But I think one of the biggest constraints so far is that because this is a compute intensive service to run, we have not launched it globally yet.
That’s partially because of wanting to optimise it for each place, and there’s some work around connectors for that, but it’s partially that we want to make sure that we do this efficiently.”He also highlighted the silver lining of limiting the release to North America for now, noting that hitting 10 million sign-ups in just six weeks in a limited market proves the huge demand. “So if we actually did roll it out more broadly, then you would expect that number to be significantly larger than what we’re seeing today," Zuckerberg added. "But then on the flip side, we actually have to go do the work to bring the efficiency in line to make that make sense.”Shopping and daily productivity take the lead It is not just the sheer number of users that has caught everyone’s attention; it is how people are actually using the app. About 25% of the people who have set up Muse are using it daily, which is driving incredibly strong retention rates, Meta revealed.To make this seamless shopping experience possible, Meta uses a connector from the financial technology company Plaid, which links payment apps directly to users' bank accounts.
The volume of transactions is so high that Zuckerberg noted Plaid had never seen this kind of activity on any other service before.Beyond retail therapy, users are actively connecting the AI to their personal emails and calendars to manage their daily productivity.Currently, Meta protects this data using a feature called Muse Secure VM. To further boost privacy, Zuckerberg announced an upcoming feature called Muse Confidential VM, which is designed to ensure that absolutely no one, not even Meta itself, can view the personal content users share with their AI agent.The roadmap to a billion usersNow that Muse has achieved what Meta calls a "product-market fit," the focus is shifting towards scaling the app and bringing down those massive computing costs.
Meta plans to keep Muse free for most users but will monetise the platform by taking a percentage of the commerce happening through the app. Power users who want access to the most advanced AI models will also have the option to pay for a premium tier.Zuckerberg confidently forecasted that Muse users will eventually bring in more revenue per person than users across its current family of apps, like Facebook and Instagram, which currently generate several hundred dollars annually.Looking forward, Zuckerberg teased the creation of a "Muse network." This will upgrade the AI from a standalone assistant to a connected ecosystem where a user's Muse can directly communicate with the AI agents of their friends, family, and favourite businesses to easily coordinate tasks and purchases. - Ends