Meta, the parent company of Instagram, has on Wednesday announced starting with testing NFTs in Instagram Stories.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg says they’re expanding to give creatives around the world a chance to showcase their work on Instagram. meta want also extend this plan to Facebook so that artists on both platforms can monetize their works.
Competition for OpenSea
This move by Meta has been in the pipeline for some time and now it seems to become a reality in the short term. If Facebook and Instagram start to function as a marketplace for NFTs, existing large players such as OpenSea will suddenly face enormous competition. The advantage for Meta is that they already have a large network of users via Instagram and Facebook. That is an asset that the existing crypto providers cannot compete with.
The success of OpenSea and the rest of the market has undoubtedly opened the eyes at Meta. Instagram is a platform that revolves around visual entertainment and that fits perfectly with NFTs. In addition, the step to the NFT world of Meta can mean a huge boost for the ecosystem. The market is currently in a slump, but if billions of people suddenly get exposure to NFTs, that could quickly change.
Meta is not alone
With their Instagram and Facebook, Meta is certainly not the only party from the traditional world that will focus on NFTs. Earlier this year, Twitter also launched the ability to showcase NFTs on their platform. On Twitter, users can link their Ethereum wallets to their profile and set verified NFTs as their profile picture. Setting an expensive NFT as a profile picture is similar to wearing an expensive watch in the real world.
In addition to Meta and Twitter, the online marketplace eBay is also working on NFTs. Not long ago, eBay acquired KnownOrigin, taking a major step into the digital world as well. Existing DeFi companies also see the future in NFTs. UniSwap, for example, has acquired NFT aggregator Genie, making it clear that they also have plans for this branch of the industry.