Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META) has now fully rolled out non-fungible token (NFT) features in the United States, including the ability for users to cross-post their NFTs across Facebook and Instagram, the company announced in an update this week.
The social media giant first introduced NFTs to select Instagram users in May, and since then, it has been expanding the feature to users on both Instagram and Facebook. In August, the company announced NFT integration to Instagram users in over 100 countries across Asia, Africa, South America, and the Middle East. A month later, the feature debuted on Facebook to target its 2.9 billion users.
In its latest update, the company has announced that users can cross-post their NFTs–which it labels digital collectibles, perhaps to distance them from the negative connotations of the term “NFTs”—across the two platforms, which between them have 4.3 billion users.
In addition to cross-posting, Meta announced that digital collectibles are now available to all users in the more than 100 countries where the company was experimenting with select users.
Everyone on @instagram and @facebook can now share their digital collectibles in the US, and on Instagram in the previously announced 100+ countries. Creators like artist Lívia Elektra are sharing their #NFTs on our apps. https://t.co/6yV4HgfHSW https://t.co/wa2wkWgfWX pic.twitter.com/fRi0wA7a6l
— Meta Newsroom (@MetaNewsroom) September 29, 2022
The rollout comes at a time when the company is struggling with a slump in growth and revenue as advertising income dips. In an internal memo last week, Meta revealed it’s implementing a hiring freeze and a cost-cutting campaign. The notice, written by Meta’s Head of People Lori Goler, stated that the company “would pause sourcing candidates and will not make any offers until the freeze is lifted later this year.”
It’s not just the general economic slowdown that has reduced ad spend for most companies that’s hurting Meta. The company has recently faced intense competition for ad dollars from TikTok, the short-video app owned by China’s ByteDance.
Chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg’s bet on new technologies, especially the metaverse and augmented reality, has also not quite worked out for him and his company. In the second quarter of this year, the company announced its first-ever revenue decline as profits dipped by over 30%.
Integrating NFTs may not quite be the spark that Meta needs to turn around its fortunes. This year, interest in these digital collectibles has tumbled, with data showing that NFT trading volume has plummeted by over 97%.
Trading volumes in NFTs down 97%https://t.co/1vnDTVmLuj pic.twitter.com/g3kqksJYqP
— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) September 28, 2022
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