Meta, a leader in commerce and fintech, announced the end of its NFT tools on Instagram and Facebook before it had even properly begun. This unexpected decision, made by Stephane Kasriel, head of Commerce and Financial Technologies at Meta, comes in the wake of Facebook’s shift of focus to Meta, to capitalize on the emerging metaverse.
https://twitter.com/skasriel/status/1635386565487898624?t=2tIUFiU115BdkZXYsYFwZg&s=19
Meta Moves to Curb NFT Activity on Instagram and Facebook
This Monday, 13 March, Stephane Kasriel announced that Meta’s attention is shifting away from non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to other areas where the company can have a meaningful impact. Consequently, Meta is temporarily discontinuing its digital collectible (NFT) services to concentrate on other means of assisting creators, individuals, and businesses, with an emphasis on alternative monetization prospects such as Meta Pay and Reels.
In November 2022, Meta provided some opportunities for NFT sales for Instagram creators, only to quickly retract and alter their direction. This abrupt change of course does not bode well for Meta’s other Web 3 and metaverse plans, leaving onlookers with a lack of confidence in the social media giant’s ambitions.
Let me be clear: creating opportunities for creators and businesses to connect with their fans and monetize remains a priority, and we're going to focus on areas where we can make impact at scale, such as messaging and monetization opps for Reels. [4/5]
— Stephane Kasriel (@skasriel) March 13, 2023
What’s Next for Meta?
The crypto community was taken by surprise by Meta’s move. The initial introduction of NFTs on Instagram and Facebook was limited, but it served to actualize Meta’s ambition of leading the way in metaverse services in the long run.
An in-depth evaluation of Meta’s expenditures has revealed that the organization has invested an aggregate total of $36 billion from 2019 to 2022 into its Metaverse and Virtual Reality operations, colloquially termed ‘Reality Labs’, at a cost of $30.7 billion for the same period.
David Wehner, Meta CFO, anticipates that Reality Labs’ operating losses in 2023 will be significantly higher compared to the previous year. Owing to these substantial deficits, Meta has decided to discontinue its current strategy for NFTs and the metaverse.
