Virtual reality yoga app developer to Meta: I worked like ‘hell’ only to get burned

Andre Elijah created a virtual reality yoga app, with avatars of top instructors teaching various poses, as well as pilates and mindfulness – all of which users will never see, he alleged in a lawsuit, because Meta Platforms Inc killed it just before launch time.

Meta canceled Elijah’s AEI Fitness app days before its unveiling at Meta Connect, the world’s biggest VR conference, which he says would have propelled it to the top of the VR fitness app market, eventually reaping him tens of millions of dollars.

“It was hell working on it, and we got there,” Elijah said in an interview, adding that the company made a “gorgeous” trailer for its presentation at the conference. But while preparing to be part of chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote, he says he was told “‘No, the project’s killed, we’re not giving you your money’.”

Meta banned Elijah from the conference, and added his name to a “blacklist” of developers it refuses to do business with, according to the complaint he filed this week in federal court in San Jose, California.

The lawsuit offers a rare look inside the personal sacrifices developers make to hitch themselves to Meta’s full-throttle push into the metaverse. The company has been under pressure from investors to sell more of its VR headsets after years of operating losses in its VR tech division. One of the barriers preventing consumers from buying more VR headsets is the lack of apps and content compared to mobile phones or computers.

The reason for Meta’s reprisal, according to Elijah, is that he also talked with Apple Inc and ByteDance’s Pico about launching his app on their competing VR platforms. His antitrust complaint portrays Meta as conspiring to kill his app as part of an ongoing effort to control the market for VR headsets and app distribution.

Meta didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Elijah is seeking US$3.2mil (RM15.10mil) in the near term, and hundreds of millions more in lost revenue and damages. The VR fitness app market was valued at US$16.4bil (RM77.39bil) last year and is expected to grow to more than US$109bil (RM514.37bil) in the next seven years, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit also names Zuckerberg and Alo, a Beverly Hills fitness apparel and accessories company that Elijah said his app would use, as defendants.

It’s unusual for developers to sue a platform and risk scaring off other companies they might want to work with.

“I never counted on this being the situation, I’m still dealing with it,” Elijah said. “It’s rough.”

The lawsuit comes as Apple plans to release its competing headset, the Apple Vision Pro, in the coming months. Meta has been the industry leader in the VR headset market for years, but could face considerable competition from Apple.

It’s not the first time Meta has been accused of trying to corner the VR fitness app market. The US Federal Trade Commission sought to block the company’s acquisition of Within Unlimited Inc, maker of the popular Supernatural app, alleging that Meta was denying consumers the benefit of adding another competitor to the market. But the agency backed off this year after a federal judge in San Jose rejected its request to halt the deal. – Bloomberg