Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to his Instagram account to announce the expansion of Non-fungible Token (NFT) support on Instagram to 100 countries including India. This feature will let users, businesses and creators showcase their digital collectables on their Instagram profiles.
Zuckerberg shared a childhood picture of him playing baseball in a red jersey, which will soon be converted into an NFT.
The technology giant has been testing digital collectibles on Instagram with select collectors and creators in the US since May. The new expansion will include countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and the Americas.
Apart from Ethereum and Polygon blockchains, users will now be able to post digital collectibles minted on the Flow blockchain.
The company is also introducing third-party support for wallet connections with Coinbase wallet and Dapper. Existing wallets include Rainbow, MetaMask, and Trust Wallet.
"On Meta’s platforms, creators can already express themselves creatively, build and engage a fan community, and make money pursuing their passions using tools that are democratizing access to opportunity. As web3 technology continues to advance, we’re excited that people, creators, businesses and collectors will have the opportunity to share digital collectibles they created or own, on Instagram," a Meta spokesperson told Moneycontrol.
The spokesperson added, "NFTs is one of the technologies that will unlock the economic and community-building potential of the metaverse. While the metaverse is still in its infancy, technologies like NFTs are already offering new ways to create value and connect with others, and we believe that even more opportunities will emerge as we continue to build for the future.”
“As access to digital collectibles expands, we aim to educate broad audiences on the space, including through our @creators’ ‘NFTeach Me’ series. Across Meta, we’re exploring a wide range of web3 technologies because we believe they will expand access, reduce costs, and accelerate innovation, empowering people and creators around the world,” Instagram said in blog post.
For instance, Instagram content creator Shereen Sikka (@shereenlovebug) started investing into NFTs in January this year. She was drawn to several women-led projects on the platform, and started buying their NFTs to show support and be a part of the community.
"I am a very visual person, I love art, colours and owning exclusive limited pieces of digital art. The investment reason goes without saying, but getting to show them off on my Instagram profile or posting them, brings in a sense of pride to it and also the fact that I would be able to show the communities I belong to like the World of Women, makes me happy and proud," she told Moneycontrol.
"When I buy a piece of digital art or NFT, it is more than just the visual art or the investment, it’s about being a part of that community and what it stands for. I love what World of Women or similar women led projects are doing for women empowerment. Also, a large part of my audience is women. I feel when I will be able to post this on my account, my followers will be able to see for themselves, what communities they want to be a part of and get more aware about investing into NFTs as an asset," she said.
The development comes a week after Zuckerberg during Meta’s earnings call said that the company will be slowing investment pace across a bunch of multi-year projects in progress in the areas of AI infrastructure, business platform and Reality Labs business to accelerate business. Meta reported its first ever revenue drop amidst recession seeping in the US economy.
Post rebranding and charting its future road map into the metaverse last year, Meta was on a roll in terms of hiring for newer tech jobs around Web 3 and metaverse development. This too has been slowed down both globally and in India.
