Nearly a year after integrating NFT features on Instagram and Facebook, Meta is pulling the plug.
Stephane Kasriel, head of Commerce and Financial Technologies at Meta, announced the news in a series of tweets.
According to him, Meta will phase down NFT features in order to focus on alternative revenue options for creators, businesses, and people.
While Meta is still interested in NFTs and encourages individuals and companies to use its social platforms to expand their communities, the tech giant prefers to focus on areas where it can have a major influence.
Among the considerations are messaging and monetization options for Reels, as well as payments using Meta Pay and investment in messaging payments across Meta.
Meta has been cutting costs since last year, when it laid off 11,000 employees, and recently revealed intentions to slash another 13%.
The Reality Labs division, which is in charge of developing the metaverse, lost $13.7 billion in 2022, and withdrawing NFT features and raising the price of its VR devices might be part of the strategy to make up for that loss.
Yet, losses do not seem to discourage Meta; these were years of large investments, with returns appearing slow owing to the relatively untapped market, and this year will be no different: “Beyond 2023, we expect to pace Reality Labs investments such that we can achieve our goal of growing overall company operating income in the long run,” Meta stated last year.
