Instagram to remove the ability to tag products during live broadcasts

Starting in March, Instagram users will no longer be able to tag products in live broadcasts. The feature called Live Shopping allowed creators to tag products for promotions during a live broadcast.

As reported by TechCrunch, the method was popular in Asian markets but failed to catch on in the United States and Europe.

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The popularity of Live Shopping grew during the pandemic when e-commerce and online shopping saw a huge boom in numbers.

U.S. customers, however, did not respond as well as their counterparts in the Asian markets, and after the pandemic subsided, numbers fell well below expectations. Even TikTok pulled back on its plans to grow live shopping in the US.

Meta has faced the brunt of this too and discontinued similar offerings on Facebook. Now it has turned its attention to Instagram and announced that it will shut down the service on March 16, 2023.

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In a post on its support page for Instagram, the company said that the removal will help them "focus on products and features that provide the most value to our users."

It said that accounts would, "will still be able to set up and run" shops on Instagram, and that the company will "continue to invest in shopping experiences for people and businesses across feed, stories, Reels, ads and more."