Meta's Payments Potential
When Can I Pay With My Ray-Bans?
Recently, the FT reported that Meta is exploring buying a stake in Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica. This was followed by Alex Heath at The Verge, adding additional information, stating that Meta is interested in buying around a 5% stake in the company. This would be a substantial investment given EssilorLuxottica’s market cap of circa $100bn - at the time of writing.
Meta has partnered with Ray-Ban to release two versions of its so-called smart glasses. The second version, released last year, was popular. In Meta’s recent earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg said that the outlook for this category had “improved quite a bit”, leading Meta to double down in this space.
The interest in this area was emphasised by additional info in The Verge. It was reported that Google had approached EssilorLuxottica’s leadership to discuss putting its Gemini AI in future Raybans. So Meta’s investment may be a way to cement its relationship with eyewear manufacturers and ward off the competition.
Yet what does M…