Meta’s latest plan to make Instagram better than TikTok? NFTs.
In a press release, the company announced that it is bringing “digital collectibles” to the social media platform. Digital collectibles are really just NFTs, and Instagram says that select creators will soon be able to make and sell their own to their fans, whether it be on or off the platform. The toolkit will start with creators in the United States first and eventually expand to other countries.
Creators will soon be able to make their own digital collectibles on Instagram and sell them to fans, both on and off Instagram. They’ll have an end-to-end toolkit — from creation (starting on the Polygon blockchain) and showcasing, to selling. People can easily support their favorite creators by buying their digital collectibles directly within Instagram. We’re testing these new features with a small group of creators in the US first, and hope to expand to more countries soon.
The company, in addition to announcing the NFT toolkit, also announced that it was expanding its partnerships with a number of known names in the industry, including Solana, Phantom, and OpenSea.
We’re also expanding the types of digital collectibles that you can showcase on Instagram to include video and adding support for the Solana blockchain and Phantom wallet, in addition to the blockchains and wallets that we already support. Additionally, information for select collections where the metadata has been enriched by OpenSea, such as collection name and descriptions, will now be available on Instagram.
In addition to the launch of NFT sales, Instagram also announced that it is rolling out support for subscriptions to all eligible creators in the United States. The company is also bringing gifts to Reels. All of the moves give creators even more ways to monetize their fanbase on the platform.
The move comes a day after the company started rolling out a new user experience on the web.
