Facebook, the world’s biggest social-networking company, is trying to reduce its reliance on online advertising and expand its revenue streams through e-commerce and other means.
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Previously, the company’s shopping service on the Facebook platform had very limited influence, and the comparison of network shopping giants such as amazon was not at all a level.
According to the latest media news, Facebook’s Instagram will launch a separate shopping app that will make the original shopping service bigger.
Facebook has four star products under its ownership: Facebook platform, WhatsApp, the chat service, and Facebook Messenger, as well as Instagram, a mobile photo or video sharing tool.
The total users of the four products are already equal to half of the earth’s population. Instagram, which has over a billion active users, has become a global mobile social star.
Instagram is developing specialized shopping software that could be named “is shopping,” according to the technology media, citing people familiar with the situation. The shopping software will be closely related to the Instagram social platform, the branded merchant that sells the merchandise, the account that the user is interested in on Instagram.
Instagram has not confirmed or commented on the stand-alone shopping app.
It is reported that it is not clear when the shopping software will be launched, the development of the software is in progress, and there is the possibility that the project will eventually be canceled. However, Instagram is now well positioned to expand further in e-commerce, the sources said.
At a recent financial analyst meeting, Facebook chief operating Officer Sundberg revealed that there are currently 25 million corporate brand accounts and 2 million advertiser accounts in Instagram. Another 80% of Instagram users focus on at least one corporate brand account.
The introduction of standalone shopping software will not only help business accounts expand sales and revenue with Instagram’s huge fan base, it will also give Instagram new revenue opportunities.
Facebook will challenge e-commerce platforms such as Shopify by giving more tools to companies that expand their business through the Instagram platform in the future, a source said.
Some third-party companies are reportedly offering business tools to corporate accounts or advertisers on the Instagram platform, such as four sixty, which can help businesses create photo galleries that provide shopping, and tune the content that is published on the Instagram platform.
In addition, Shopify’s online store includes plugins that can help businesses that use Instagram to expand their business.
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It is reported that, as early as November 2016, Instagram began testing the shopping function, the last March began a large-scale promotion, the enterprise merchant account can be included in the photos of some special tags, users can directly buy related products through photos.
Instagram is also testing a new feature that integrates shopping services in the “Stories” feature. It is also worth mentioning that online shopping is not the first feature of Instagram spin-off as a standalone software, and the company began testing a mobile chat tool called direct at the end of last year.
This June, Instagram continued to launch a software called IGTV, which will be the original video sharing tool for users who compete with YouTube.