Quick take:
- Mark Zuckerberg has announced Instagram is rolling out NFTs to 100 more countries.
- Earlier this year, Instagram started testing an NFT feature with select creators in the US.
- Meta said it sees a massive opportunity in allowing its audience to trade digital collectibles last month.
Mark Zuckerberg has announced Instagram is rolling out digital collectibles in 100 more countries following successful tests in the US. The Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META) CEO is accelerating his company’s Web3 strategy despite a recent slowdown in market activity.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital files representing music, video clips, artwork, or collectibles stored on the blockchain. Nonfungible token use cases have been rising over the last 18 months amid a rapid adoption in the mainstream. They have become a crucial part of the blockchain gaming sector, as well as, in the retail industry where companies continue to launch utility-backed phygitals (digital collectibles attached to real-life products like garments and toys).
Meta is looking to tap into the growing popularity of NFTs among the GenZ. Announcing the expanded roll-out on Metanewsroom, Meta’s official Twitter account, the company wrote: “Mark Zuckerberg announced we’re rolling out digital collectibles to 100 more countries. Now, more people, creators and businesses can showcase their #NFTs on @instagram.”
According to the announcement, Meta users will be able to buy NFTs on Instagram using Coinbase Wallet and Dapper Wallet, by Flow.
Meta also revealed in June that it is testing the same NFT feature on Facebook, as it seeks to bring digital collectibles to two of its most popular social media platforms.
Instagram reached 2 billion users in Q3, 2021, and is on course to top 2.5 billion by 2023, according to social media statistics and research platform Business of Apps. On the other hand, Facebook’s Monthly Active Users reached 2.93 billion in April 2022.
Meta’s web3 strategy envisions a future where people use immersive 3D virtual spaces to communicate socialise and entertain themselves. The company invested $10 billion in the project last year after rebranding from Facebook to Meta.
Zuckerberg admitted in May that the company will continue to burn cash to make its metaverse strategy work, maintaining that some features may not work until technological advances reach the right level.
However, with NFTs, there is hope to taste the first fruits of the company’s huge bet on web3. And with billions of users to target, rolling out digital collectibles in 100 countries could be the trigger for rapid onboarding of users to web3.
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