Following more than a year of research and experimentation, a technology giant, Meta, will not continue with its NFT project. The social media factory has decided to stop irreplaceable tokens from its Facebook and Instagram platforms. The announcement was made by Stefan Kasriel, Head of Trading and Financial Technology at Meta. In a series of tweets posted on March 13, Kasriel noted that Meta was “close digital collectibles (NFTs)” from Instagram and Facebook “to focus on other ways to support creators, people and businesses.”
Some product news: Across the company, we’re taking a hard look at what we’re prioritizing to increase our focus. We’re pausing digital collectibles (NFTs) for now to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses. 🧵[1/5]
— Stefan Kasriel (@skasriel) March 13, 2023
Meta’s year-long NFT experiment
News of Meta’s interest in NFTs emerged in late 2021 amid growing interest in the technology. Instagram then began rolling out support for NFTs in May 2022, before the same functionality was extended to Facebook a month later. The feature was initially only available to a select number of creators. Then, in August, Instagram made its NFT tools available in over 100 countries before adding “end-to-end toolset” which allowed Instagram users to hack and trade NFTs. However, it seems that the experiment did not produce the desired results.
Despite the suspension of NFT support on both Instagram and Facebook, Meta intends to to prioritize finding ways that users can “connect with their fans and monetize (content).” However, the news also coincides with a period of major upheaval for the once unstoppable social media empire, which has also announced it will cut a further 10,000 jobs. This comes just 4 months after the initial release of 11,000 members in November.
News of the liquidation was not well received in the NFT community. An NFT artist named Dave Krugman has was critical of the decision, defining Meta’s entire approach as “myopic” before noting the company “give up before it even starts.”
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*All investment/financial opinions expressed by NFT Plazas are from the personal research and experience of our site moderators and are intended as educational material only. People are required to fully research any product before making any investment.
Basil is an avid fan of blockchain technology and all its innovations, and he is passionate about sharing this narrative with his audience. He has spent more than five years in the crypto space, specializing in research and creating Web3 content for various media around the world.