Meta’s latest blockchain offering will allow a select group of American creators on Instagram to create NFTs and sell the digital assets directly through the social media platform.
The company said it won’t charge any service fees until 2024 and will cover gas costs incurred by creators and collectors for now. However, all NFT in-app purchases are still subject to applicable Android and iOS app store fees.
With this decision, Instagram has essentially become an NFT market, comparable to crypto-native platforms such as OpenSea, Rarible or Magic Eden. These marketplaces, however, charge a service fee.
OpenSea, for example, takes a 2.5% cut from the sale price. Creating or selling an item is free. Rarible, on the other hand, takes 1% from the buy side and 1% from the sell side on each sale. And Magic Eden takes 2% on all transactions.
Meta has yet to announce an NFT royalty system for secondary sales, but given the recent wave of royalty-optional marketplaces including Magic Eden, SudoSwap, and LooksRare, it may choose to jump on the bandwagon. walking.
Free is not the usual style of tech giants, especially for Meta. Its virtual reality (VR) video game Horizon Worlds reportedly charges users a 47.5% fee built into the cost of Meta Quest Store apps and games. This figure includes a 30% hardware platform fee for Meta Quest VR from Meta.
Meta’s Reality Labs division responsible for producing metaverse-related technology continues to suffer heavy losses. The latest figure was a loss of $3.7 billion in the third quarter.
Meta wants creators to make a living (and help solve its financial problems)
As Meta suffers heavy losses on its metaverse division, CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems eager to lure more users into the creator economy via NFTs.
According to Zuckerberg, the plan is “to help creators build for the metaverse,” and the roadmap includes blockchain-powered digital collectibles. To celebrate, Meta invited Instagram and Facebook creators from around the world to “Creator Week” events during the first week of November in Los Angeles, London, Bali and Sao Paulo.
Echoing Web3’s promise to tear down walled gardens, Instagram’s new feature lets users take any collectible photos or videos they create on Instagram off the platform and share them on their portfolios. or favorite NFT markets.
Meta recently launched its digital collectibles feature in 100 countries, allowing users to connect their digital wallets. But the feature only allows Polygon, Ethereum, and Flow NFTs.
The latest update will add support for two new wallets – the Solana blockchain and the Phantom wallet – in addition to the existing Rainbow, MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Coinbase Wallet and Dapper Wallet options.
Influencers and creators traditionally monetize their work through social media through a combination of brand partnerships, revenue-sharing programs from various platforms, and even direct payments from fans and followers.
Meta’s Web3 strategy to help creators earn a living, Stephane Kasriel, head of commerce and fintech at Meta, said in a Medium post.
“Imagine if, as a creator, you use Instagram to sell a ticket (in the form of an NFT) to an event or experience that includes access to an exclusive video meet and greet with you or unlocks access to other content,” Kasriel said. “Where there was once only one way to monetize that ticket, there may soon be multiple ways.”
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