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Meta Platforms, Inc., (NASDAQ: FB) is reportedly working on NFT integrations for its social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram.
According to a report by the Financial Times, Meta has tasked teams from its Facebook and Instagram divisions to create functionality integrations and enable the minting and sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The new functionalities are said to allow users to display their NFTs or NFT collections directly through their social media profiles.
Instagram’s company head, Adam Mosseri, stated in December that the social platform has been “actively exploring NFTs,” while initial reports on the matter have claimed that Instagram is currently doing internal testing for its NFT showcasing features. The program for Instagram’s NFT efforts was part of an initiative led by Kristin George, the platform’s director of product and creators, and David Marcus, who previously led Facebook’s payments and crypto division. Marcus has since left Facebook and was replaced by Stephane Kasriel, former CEO of Upwork, a freelancing platform.
Meta has not released any official statement on the development, and yet according to sources familiar with the matter, Meta is also exploring the launch of a marketplace for users to buy, sell, or even trade NFTs. Such features would not be a surprise, since Meta has, in particular, rebranded itself to a metaverse company, announcing it to a global audience on October 28, 2021.
During the announcement, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that NFTs represent an opportunity that could be utilized to support a market for digital goods once Meta releases its own metaverse. Meta has disclosed that it is investing $10 billion annually to build this metaverse over a decade. The global NFT market, on the other hand, has seen a meteoric rise, posting an estimated total revenue of some $40 billion last year.
The rebrand marks a critical shift of its long term focus to building on the emerging metaverse space, which it considers as a digital extension of the physical world. Meta’s attempt to make inroads into the metaverse space is primarily being prepared through its established presence in social media, with the extensive addition of virtual reality and augmented reality features.
According to the initial reports on this move, these efforts at integrating NFTs are still being developed at an early stage, and details are bound to change as the features in questions get released.
Note: This story is currently developing and CryptoDaily will update this article with relevant information when available and as the matter unfolds.
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