July 6, 2022
By Murtuza Merchant
NFTs are now available on Facebook after months of anticipation in the web3 community.
The announcement comes a week after the CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, said the company will launch testing for NFT support on Facebook soon.
In a tweet by Navdeep Singh, a product manager at Meta, he posted screenshots of what users can expect to see on the platform.
Facebook NFT adoption is huge news
The announcement that Facebook is now rolling out NFTs on its platform is enormous news for the NFT space. The company is the biggest social media platform in the world and dominates the industry. With over 2.9 billion monthly active users, it will open up the NFT market to people who have never used it. To put that number into perspective, almost 35% of the world’s population uses Facebook daily.
In the tweet by Navdeep Singh, he states, “We’re launching NFTs on Facebook! Excited to share what I’ve been working on with the world.” However, it is essential to note that this is not a full rollout of NFT technology. The new ‘digital collectibles’ tab is only available in North America and for a small number of content creators.
There are four screenshots of the Facebook app showing NFTs. These images show the ability to post NFTs on your timeline with new display options. What’s more, when you click on the image, it will show you information about the wider art collection and the creator of each NFT.
When Meta introduced NFTs onto the Instagram platform, it was exclusively for Ethereum (ETH) and Polygon (MATIC) NFTs. But, they confirmed they also have plans to use Solana and Flow in the future. It is unclear whether Facebook will follow a similar approach, but this appears to be the most realistic outcome.
Meta hopes that NFT creators will have the option to cross-post across all Meta platforms, including Facebook and Instagram soon.
No fees for NFTs on Facebook
Facebook has also confirmed that there will be no fees for NFT creators on the social media platform. Significantly, it will also not allow NFTs in any advertising. This is an important decision as advertisements and shopping now play a significant role on the platform.
Indeed, the company has learned the lessons of other social media companies that have adopted NFTs.
When Twitter first introduced its NFT profile picture scheme, it cost $2.99 to take part. Eventually, after uproar from the NFT community, they made it entirely free.
The metaverse is the bigger picture
NFT adoption on both Facebook and Instagram is part of a massive metaverse vision for Meta. The company is fully committed to the idea of the ‘metaverse’ and wants to position itself at the head of the web3 revolution.
Furthermore, last week Meta confirmed that they are exploring how creators can make money on Facebook and Instagram. To do this, they are expanding their current monetization tools to a broader community of creators.
About the author
Murtuza Merchant is a senior journalist and an avid follower of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
