- Shadi Nayyer has joined Meta in a new role focused on metaverse creator and developer relationships.
- Nayyer’s role overseeing ecosystem growth rolls up into the Reality Labs content organization.
- Prior to joining Meta, Nayyer led global creator programs at TikTok.
Meta has tapped former TikTok exec Shadi Nayyer to oversee a new team that will build relationships with creators and developers in its metaverse division, Reality Labs.
Nayyer’s new role leading ecosystem growth falls under the content organization within Reality Labs. She told Business Insider she’ll initially focus on creators who develop inside its virtual-reality game Horizon Worlds and other metaverse apps.
She plans to hire a team of developer advocates, community leaders, and program managers to host hackathons, attend third-party events, and run competitions and other community programs. Over time, the work will expand into other parts of the division, such as augmented reality, Nayyer said.
“A lot of what my focus is going to be on is essentially growing our developer creator ecosystem,” she said. “Bringing on creators, builders, developers onto the Meta platform. Helping them learn about our products, about our tools, and just getting them into our various creator programs.”
Nayyer was previously TikTok’s head of creator programs.
Meta sees 2025 as a critical year for its metaverse work, per a recent internal memo from chief technology officer Andrew “Boz” Bosworth viewed by BI. Bosworth called out Horizon Worlds as an area of focus, saying that platform would need to “break out” for the company’s long-term plans to come to fruition.
Horizon Worlds offers a mix of games, live events, and social features for Meta’s Quest VR headsets, as well as mobile and desktop devices. In September, Meta product VP Aigerim Shorman said usage of the Horizon platform was up “5x compared to last year,” and Horizon Worlds was a top-five app on the Quest 3 as measured by weekly users.
The company told investors during last week’s fourth-quarter earnings that its Reality Labs unit hit $1.08 billion in revenue in the period. It expects operating losses in the division to increase in 2025, as they did in 2024.
Nayyer, who joined Meta last month, said her team will focus on driving up engagement from the metaverse developer community.
Prior to joining Meta, Nayyer oversaw creator programs and community at TikTok, where she worked on creator product marketing, partnerships, and community development, as well as its diversity, equity, and inclusion programming. Before that, Nayyer worked on community marketing at Twitch.
Meta and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.
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