According to Stephane Kasriel, the head of commerce and financial technologies at Meta, the company is prioritizing other areas and as a result, is abandoning its pursuit of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
“Some product news: across the company, we’re looking closely at what we prioritize to increase our focus. We’re winding down digital collectibles (NFTs) for now to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses,” Kasriel said.
According to Kasriel, while creating opportunities for creators and businesses to connect with and monetize user bases remains a priority, the company is going to focus on areas where it can make an impact at scale. Kasriel earmarked product lines like ‘messaging and monetization opportunities for Reels.’
First: a big Thank You to the partners who joined us on this journey and who're doing great work in a dynamic space. Proud of the relationships we built. And look forward to supporting the many NFT creators who continue using Instagram and Facebook to amplify their work. [2/5]
— Stephane Kasriel (@skasriel) March 13, 2023
Meta had considered launching its own NFT marketplace with its digital currency wallet, Novi (also abandoned), planned to be a key component in the NFT push. At the same time, Meta companies, Facebook and Instagram, have been trialing a bunch of NFT products over the last two years as they sought to ‘create more opportunities for the creator economy.’
Facebook and Instagram plans would not stop at integrations as the companies were looking at adding features onto their websites and applications that would make it easier for creators and users to enjoy NFTs.
Meta had indicated adding NFTs for both Instagram and Facebook based on user feedback where creators said that NFTs help to ‘take control of their work, their relationship with their fans, and how they can monetize.’
As recent as November 2022, Meta announced that users would soon be able to create NFT digital collectibles on Instagram and sell them to fans both on and off Instagram.
The company was looking at adding functionality for creating NFTs on the platforms. In the latest update on the plans, Meta said it was enabling users to create and showcase their collectibles. Creation would be handled on the Polygon blockchain while integration with the Solana blockchain and Phantom wallets was said to be underway.
NFTs on Instagram would also contain additional metadata such as collection names and descriptions, particularly coming from the OpenSea marketplace.
In Africa, Instagram began to test the ability for users to dabble in NFTs in August 2022, announcing support for PFP NFTs hosted on Ethereum, Polygon, and Flow.
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