Mark Zuckerberg instructs Meta to develop a prediction market application.

According to a New York Times report, prediction market platforms Polymarket and Kalshi have become some of the fastest-growing platforms on the internet, allowing users to predict the outcomes of various events, ranging from Super Bowl results to the length of U.S. State of the Union addresses. Now, Mark Zuckerberg has taken notice of this trend and aims to enter the space. Two employees with knowledge of the matter revealed that Meta CEO Zuckerberg recently assembled a small team to develop a smartphone app similar to Polymarket and Kalshi. However, real-money betting will not be available to users in the initial phase; the app may use a video game-like points system for predictions and rankings, though the company has not ruled out the possibility of introducing real-money wagering features in the future. Internally codenamed "Arena", the app will operate independently of Meta’s existing social products, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Insiders said Meta plans to leverage its massive social network user base to drive traffic to Arena and encourage user adoption of the product. Internal sources noted that the project is still in the experimental stage but has been classified as one of the company’s key initiatives, part of Zuckerberg’s strategy to explore new social behaviors and product formats. Currently, Meta’s total daily active users across its apps exceed 3.56 billion, and the market has begun questioning whether user growth on its core social platforms is approaching a ceiling.