Meta Expands Instagram NFT Feature To 100 Countries
Creators and collectors from around the world can now showcase the NFTs they own on the world’s 4th largest social media platform.
AUGUST 5, 2022. NEWS. WRITTEN BY JOHN NICHOLS.
Meta’s NFT adoption is coming thick and fast.
Just three months after the launch of the feature, image-focused social media platform Instagram has announced that it has now enabled users from 100 countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the Americas to share the NFTs they have created or purchased.
First arriving exclusively for US users on May 10th, this feature allows users to link their crypto wallet to their Instagram account and showcase the NFTs they own to their followers.
Four wallets; MetaMask, Rainbow, Trust Wallet and Coinbase Wallet (with Dapper coming soon) – and three blockchains; Ethereum, Polygon and Flow – are currently supported, encompassing popular NFT collections such as Bored Ape Yacht Club, ZED RUN and NBA Top Shot.
Once a user shares their NFT on Instagram, the creator is automatically tagged, helping to build and strengthen the culture and communities within the NFT space.
This follows Meta’s pilot of the same feature for Facebook, which started on July 1st for US users – the same day the social media giant announced the closure of its early-stage crypto wallet, Novi, due to the current bear market.
Opinion
Meta took the “fling-s***-at-a-wall-and-see-what-sticks” approach to Web3, and whilst their Novi wallet and Diem cryptocurrency have fallen by the wayside, they’re still embracing this new industry at break-neck speed.
Although this feature has been available for users for several months now, I don’t recall seeing many posts using it – and I follow a lot of NFT-related accounts.
The company has stayed eerily quiet on their full plans for NFTs. Both Instagram and Facebook facilitate the purchase of real-world products, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they incorporate support to either handle or help facilitate the buying and selling of NFTs in a similar manner.
With their Horizon Worlds metaverse reaching 300,000 monthly users, the Meta Quest 2 encroaching on 15 million sales, and Instagram and Facebook being primed for an NFT strategy, I doubt it’ll be long before Meta’s full Web3 strategy is revealed.
In the meantime, bring on Europe.
