Meta plans to wind down NFT initiatives on Facebook, Instagram to focus on other services

Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, will wind down its non-fungible token operations on both social media services.

By Danny Park2023-03-14 7:19 AM UTC

NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 25: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks about the new Facebook News feature at the Paley Center For Media on October 25, 2019 in New York City. Facebook News, which will appear in a new dedicated section on the Facebook app, will offer stories from a mix of publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, as well as other digital-only outlets.(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, will wind down its non-fungible token operations on both social media services, in a pull back from Web 3.0 technologies, to concentrate on other ways to expand support for creators and businesses, Meta’s head of commerce and financial technologies Stephane Kasriel said on Twitter Tuesday.

See related article: Meta working on a decentralized social media app: Moneycontrol

Fast facts

“We’re winding down digital collectibles (NFTs) for now to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses,” Kasriel wrote in a Twitter thread. Instead of NFTs, Meta is going to focus on “areas where we can make impact at scale,” Kasriel said.
The company plans to shift investments from NFTs to its payment service Meta Pay and other features that enable creators to earn money directly on platforms, a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch.
Meta started experimenting with NFTs on Instagram in May last year, then expanded the NFT features on the social media platform for creators across 100 countries in August.
However, Meta’s other Web3 endeavor to grow its metaverse platform Horizon Worlds has been unsuccessful, and the company’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg declared that 2023 be a “year of efficiency” for the company during February’s Q4 earnings call.
Meta has not yet responded to Forkast’s email request for comments sent Tuesday.
Global NFT sales slumped to US$1 billion last month from US$4.3 billion in April 2022, according to Cryptoslam data.
However, Amazon reportedly plans to launch an NFT marketplace next month, where users may be able to purchase digital tokens linked to real-world assets.