Meta is testing with employees Meta Takes, a prediction-market app in which users bet with a virtual currency called "cred" — no real money involved. The Wall Street Journal reported the internal test on November 13, 2026. Meta declined to comment, and there is no indication of when, or whether, the app will reach the public.
Also on Geekiki: Meta launches Muse Ember, a lighter and cheaper AI model for agents.
What Takes is and how it works
In Meta Takes, employees stake virtual points on the outcome of future events: correct predictions earn "cred", wrong ones lose it. The currency is virtual and cannot be exchanged for money — which sets the app apart from platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi, where users trade with real money. According to the Journal, one question in the app asks whether Tim Cook, the former Apple CEO, will become Nvidia's next chief executive.
From Arena to Takes: Meta's second attempt
Takes is the current name of a project that began as "Arena". In June 2026, NPR reported, based on internal Meta documents, that CEO Mark Zuckerberg had ordered the creation of a standalone prediction app. According to those documents, Meta's Llama model would generate the questions from trending topics — and the AI itself would decide whether each event happened. Users would receive a daily allotment of "play money" to bet with.
The project is a rebuild of Forecast, Meta's prediction app launched in 2020 and shut down two years later. At the time, the company cited the operational cost of manually curating questions as the reason for the shutdown. The difference now is AI: Llama takes over question creation and outcome settlement, without the manual curation that weighed Forecast down.
Why Meta wants this market
The bet targets people aged 18 to 34. Internal research cited in the coverage projects at least 100 million monthly participants for the app. Meta is also reported to have explored partnerships with Polymarket and Kalshi to develop the platform — the two best-known prediction-market operators in the United States, which face lawsuits from US states over whether their contracts amount to illegal gambling or a regulated financial product.
The virtual-currency model is also a way to sidestep, at least for now, that regulatory hurdle: with no real money at stake, the app is a prediction game, not a betting market. A gaming lawyer quoted by NPR in June said launching without real money could give Meta more time to apply for a license from federal regulators.
The question that made headlines: Tim Cook at Nvidia
The Tim Cook question did not come out of nowhere. Polymarket runs a real-money market on who will be Nvidia's next permanent CEO — interim CEOs do not count — opened on November 10, with about $1.5 million traded and running through December 31, 2028. At 4 p.m. Eastern on November 13, Cook was priced at 4.5%; Ian Buck led at 23.5%, followed by Rene Haas (20.6%), Colette Kress (10.1%) and Johny Srouji (7.8%).
Nvidia's board said on Friday, November 13, that it is still choosing the search firm for the job and that it has "not formally engaged any potential candidates", according to CNBC. Any speculation about names, the board said, is "premature". Colette Kress has been interim CEO since Jensen Huang resigned on November 12. Read Geekiki's coverage: Jensen Huang resigns from NVIDIA after 33 years; Colette Kress takes over as interim CEO.
The Cook contract on Polymarket opened at 10:40 a.m. Eastern on November 12, 11 minutes after President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that Cook should replace Huang. Since then, the contract's price has moved between 4.5% and 6.5%.
What is still unknown
Meta did not comment on the test, gave no timetable for a public launch and did not say how many employees are taking part. It is also unknown whether "cred" could one day become money, or whether the app will keep the Meta Takes name — the project has already changed names once, from Arena to Takes. An internal test is a step, not a launch: many Meta prototypes never leave the employee-testing phase.
Image: Meta Platforms, Inc. logo, via Wikimedia Commons. The Meta brand is a registered trademark of Meta Platforms, Inc.
Sources
- AIStockWire — Meta tests Takes prediction app with employees (November 13, 2026, based on The Wall Street Journal and NPR)
- KuCoin News — Meta Tests Prediction-Market App 'Arena' with Employees (November 13, 2026)
- Analytics Insight — Meta Tests Prediction Market App to Rival Polymarket and Kalshi
- CryptoNews — Meta Tests Takes Prediction Market App With Virtual Cred Points (November 13, 2026)
- NOGENTECH — Meta Tests New Takes Prediction App Using Virtual Cred (November 14, 2026)
- CryptoGazette — Meta Tests Prediction App as DOJ Moves on $1.2 Billion in Binance Hack Funds (November 14, 2026, based on The Block newsletter)
This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence, cross-checked against public posts on X and sources on the internet, and reviewed against the reports cited. Please consult the original sources listed below to confirm the information.
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