On May 9, 2022, in the midst of NFT fever, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta would embrace NFTs. non-fungible tokens. In an interview with youtuber Tom Bilyeu, the CEO of the social networking company assured that the so-called “digital collectibles” would reach both Facebook and Instagram.
After exactly ten months and four days, the excitement of that announcement has finally faded. And, on this occasion, it was not Zuckerberg who broke the news, but the commercial head of the conglomerate, Stephane Kasriel. Through a Twitter threadthe executive assures that they have decided to leave their NFT projects behind.
Meta says goodbye to NFTs
Digital collectibles was born as a Meta project to help creators. The idea was that, through this new tool, they could show and sell NFT in their profiles. In other words, it sought to generate an income stream for content creators through the sale of their digital works.
This concept began testing shortly after it was announced. It arrived on Instagram in May of last year and a month later, in June, on Facebook, but with some limitations. In all cases, however, only selected creators from 100 countries could use the benefits of this new function based on blockchain technology.
Now, according to Kasriel, the entire company is taking a hard look at which projects they prioritize with the goal of “increasing their focus.” NFTs on Facebook and Instagram no longer a priority, so this project has just been completely suspended. Meta’s message leaves not even a ray of hope for a future revival.
However, from Meta they affirm that they will focus on developing other commercial tools, such as Meta Pay, the payment system that has been evolving little by little for some time. Also, they assure, they will focus on focusing on areas whose news and changes will have large-scale impacts, such as Reels monetization and messaging.
The news comes after the rise of NFTs (these continue to exist, although user interest is measured) and a wave of layoffs and restructuring at Meta. The Zuckerberg-led company laid off 11,000 workers late last year and is preparing to lay off another 6,000, as well as asking bosses to work harder.
Images: Goal
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