Facebook Live Shopping activities look to be another victim of Meta’s transition to short-form content. According to a statement on Facebook’s website, live shopping events will be phased out on October 1st. The little-known tool allowed Facebook Business owners to exhibit their products to their followers in live broadcasts, similar to a personal Home Shopping Network. Merchants might use Messenger to tell their Page followers of forthcoming live shopping sessions and accept payments.
Instead of such sessions, Meta is encouraging merchants to explore promoting products on Instagram Reels using Reels, Reels ads, and product tagging.“As consumers’ viewing behaviors are shifting to short-form video, we are shifting our focus to Reels on Facebook and Instagram, Meta’s short-form video product,” Meta noted in a blog post.
It’s no surprise that Meta is encouraging merchants to use Reels and Reels ads, especially since the latter hit a $1 billion annual revenue throughput in the second quarter of this year. Instagram and, increasingly, Facebook have continued to promote in-feed adverts and suggested posts on user feeds, much to the consternation of consumers who miss seeing their friends. However, in response to a recent user-led criticism, Instagram has decided to temporarily halt testing of its recommendation and video-centric features.
TikTok’s reign as the ruling app of Gen Z has prompted other social media platforms to undertake strategic changes in an effort to cater to a younger audience during the last two years. Following Meta’s first quarterly revenue loss since going public, CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized the importance of Reels on Facebook and Instagram in the company’s recovery strategy. Instagram users now spend roughly 20% of their time on the app viewing Reels, while it’s probable that a major portion of this time was spent watching replayed TikToks, prompting the platform to make some algorithmic changes to downrank TikTok videos.
Meanwhile, Meta continues to encourage users to generate more unique content for Reels. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri stated in a recent video that the company would embrace video “over time,” despite criticism from fans who miss Instagram’s former focus on photos. Instagram began experimenting with automatically converting videos submitted on public Instagram accounts into Reels last month, as well as offering a variety of templates and tools to make the process easier.
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