According to NPR, Zuckerberg met with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour last year as the fast-growing company gained popularity. However, the acquisition talks never moved forward, with reports suggesting the two sides could not reach an agreement.
Instead of buying Kalshi, Meta has now created a team to develop its own prediction market app, reportedly called Arena. Unlike Kalshi, Meta’s platform is expected to use virtual currency instead of real money, allowing users to predict the outcomes of news events, sports and other trending topics.
Prediction markets have become one of the fastest-growing areas in technology, with billions of dollars being traded every month. The industry has attracted major investors as more people use these platforms to predict everything from elections to sporting events.
Meta has a long history of buying successful startups, including Instagram and WhatsApp, before expanding them into global platforms. This time, after failing to acquire Kalshi, the company appears to be building its own competing product instead.
If Meta launches Arena, it could introduce prediction markets to billions of users across its apps, creating one of the biggest new competitors in the rapidly growing industry.