Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says NFT minting on Instagram may become available in the coming months.
Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently made an appearance in the ongoing South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, and made an exciting announcement.
Zuckerberg revealed that its photo- and video-sharing app, Instagram, is gearing up to include non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to the platform.
While the Facebook founder held back from divulging specifics, particularly regarding its full implementation, he had this to say, “We’re working on bringing NFTs to Instagram in the near term.”
Journalist Casey Newton of the Platformer was present at the conference. He tweeted that Zuckerberg said Instagram users might be able to mint their own NFTs on the platform “hopefully” in the coming months.
Instagram’s History with Facebook
Instagram, a photo- and video-sharing social networking platform, was launched as an independent company in 2010. However, Facebook acquired it for $1.0 billion in 2012. Instagram is just one of five companies Facebook has purchased over the years.
The other four include WhatsApp (a mobile messenger service, for $19.0 billion in February 2014), Oculus VR (a virtual reality technology company, for $2.0 billion in March 2014), Onavo (mobile web analytics, for an estimated $100-200 million in October 2013), and Beluga (a messaging service, for an undisclosed amount in March 2011).
Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram opened the way for cross-platform sharing of content. There is no word about when NFT functionality on Instagram will go live, so it would be too early to hope for cross-platform minting of NFTs.
The Metaverse and Mark Zuckerberg
It will be remembered that Facebook rebranded in October 2021 and changed its name to Meta. The famous name change was to direct its focus on its projects related to the Metaverse.
This surprising move is not Meta’s maiden foray into a crypto-related project. In 2019, the company disclosed plans to create “Libra,” which was later re-named “Diem,” a stablecoin using the US dollar as its peg. Unfortunately, a lack of regulatory approval and community pushback caused the project to flunk on Meta’s part.
Silvergate Capital did try to salvage it by buying the project. However, it seems several ex-employees of Meta have set their eyes on reviving the open-source stablecoin by developing their own network.
There have been reports regarding the financial details of Meta from the last quarter of 2021. It seems Reality Labs, Meta’s virtual and augmented reality research and development business showed more than $10 billion in losses. Nevertheless, the losses are excusable since Meta’s ecosystem in the Metaverse has not gone live yet; thus, turning a profit from it is challenging.
NFT and Social Media
Several social media companies are consistently looking to integrate NFTs and cryptocurrencies into their platforms. Such action comes in the throes of Twitter’s celebrated decision in January to support NFT profile pictures.
Twitter was not the first to provide such support, though. Adult site OnlyFans allowed NFT profile pictures in December 2020, while Reddit used its own collection to implement NFT avatars.
Social media giants are not the only ones trying to capitalize on crypto opportunities. Even traditional finance companies have shown interest in the space.
Major credit card company, American Express, has hinted through its trademark filings its planned expansion into the Metaverse. The company has filed its application with the US Patent and Trademark Office to start offering virtual banking and exchange services, cryptocurrency services, and allowing its cardholders to use their cards at NFT marketplaces.
Get more news updates at CollectorX News. For more information on CollectorX, and details on how to join our community, please follow our Twitter, join our Discord, or subscribe to our Telegram channel for more updates.