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Facebook Rolls Out NFT Testing for the User Profiles

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Facebook will provide a “digital collectibles” button on producers’ timelines to showcase their work, supporting nonfungible tokens (NFTs). On Thursday, the manager of the Meta technical program Navdeep Singh tweeted screenshots of a creator’s page and NFTs.

The same day, a representative for Meta, the corporation that owns Facebook, informed TechCrunch that the introduction of NFTs on Fb will be slow and start with a small group of American producers.

The ability to cross-post across Facebook and Instagram, another Meta trait, will eventually be available to NFT producers. NFTs are being tested by Instagram’s Spark AR augmented reality platform.

Following Facebook, Instagram expands the NFT trial to international users

Instagram last week opened up its NFT testing to users outside of the United States. The program enables the display of NFTs created on Polygon and Ethereum, with plans to also support Solana and Flow NFTs.

According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Meta said in May that it had started testing NFTs on Instagram and that Fb will “soon” do the same.

The NFT display capabilities would soon be applied to other Meta-owned applications including WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, he continued.

The first applications for Facebook NFT have been revealed Here
Facebook Rolls Out NFT Testing for the User Profiles 2

In October 2021, Facebook changed its name to Meta. It has been attempting to grow in Web3, however not entirely successfully. After facing stiff resistance from authorities all around the world in February, Meta abandoned its plan to introduce the Diem stablecoin.

But Meta submitted trademark requests for a Meta Pay payment system in May, and Zuckerberg declared on June 22 that Meta Pay will take the place of Facebook Pay.

According to Zuckerberg, Meta Pay will be accessible on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Fb Messenger.

It looks that Meta will not begin selling NFT on the social media platform, as a company representative told TechCrunch that Meta “indicated that it won’t offer the opportunity to transform digital collection postings into advertisements for now.”

On the company’s Meta Quest app store, which offers software and games for Meta’s metaverse, the sale of NFTs is anticipated to begin.

Meta Announces New Metaverse & Web3-Aligned Online Creator Tools

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Meta unveiled a host of features for online content creators that it claims would increase the scope for revenue generation, allow creative expression, and enhance user engagement.

Announcing the same, CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said it is expanding some of its current monetization tools to attract more creators.

First, creators would not be charged for online events, fan subscriptions, or badges, until 2024. which was previously kept till 2023.

Besides that, Meta is testing a marketplace on Instagram to bring creators and brands together for future collaboration via a partnership messaging folder within Instagram DMs.

As per sources, the proposed creator’s marketplace would compete with TikTok’s similar marketplace, which is the video app’s in-house influencer marketing platform, in a bid to woo more creators to its platform.

In terms of the firm’s existing monetization tools, the chief exec announced enhancing current offerings like the Facebook Reels Play Bonus program to onboard more creators and also let creators cross-post their Instagram Reels to Facebook and monetize them there as well.

The Reels Play Bonus program is a part of Meta’s larger $1 billion creator fund and will go live next week.

Meta’s NFT Display Now On Facebook

After Meta’s pilot testing of NFT display options on Instagram back in May, the firm is now expanding the test pool, bringing the digital collectibles feature to Facebook, ‘starting with a small group of US creators’.

For U.S.-based influencers, one is eligible to apply for the Facebook Reels Play bonus program if they have created more than five Reels and have a total of a minimum of 100k views in the past 30 days.

Not only that, the firm is planning to extend a virtual platform called Facebook Stars to all eligible creators from now on. Here fans can offer support for their favorite creators and buy merchandise.

“Beginning this week, creators who have at least 1,000 followers over the last 60 days will be eligible to onboard. Creators must be in a region where Stars are available and must also meet Meta’s Partner Monetization Policies and Content Monetization Policies”, the report read.

Meta Plans to Open Physical Metaverse Store in San Francisco

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Meta, the parent company of social networking giant Facebook, will construct a retail store in the San Francisco Peninsula that will offer virtual reality devices encompassed in its virtual space.

The team said on Monday that a retail location in Burlingame, California, will open on May 9 to provide interactive demos for the company’s hardware products, which include virtual reality headsets, video communications displays, and smart eyewear.

The store, which will be on the company’s campus (the company’s offices are in Menlo Park), will include a wall-to-wall curved LED screen that will show what consumers view when they wear their headsets.

Image of the Meta Store

Meta to provide hands-on experience to its customers

“The Meta Store is going to help people make that connection to how our products can be the gateway to the metaverse in the future. We’re not selling the metaverse in our store, but hopefully people will come in and walk out knowing a little bit more about how our products will help connect them to it.”

Martin Gilliard, Head of Store

The Store features a compact footprint for an engaging experience, at around 1,550 square feet. They also wanted to open the first Store near Reality Labs’ headquarters, where they were working to construct the metaverse.

Martin Gilliard, Store Director also said that having the shop in Burlingame allows them to explore more and maintain the consumer experience at the forefront of their growth. He also said that the key points that they discover at the store will help them to establish a retail strategy in the future.

The final objective with the Store is to demonstrate what is now feasible with their products while also providing a look into the future as the metaverse comes to life – ideally demystifying the notion in the process.

In October 2021, Facebook rebranded, stating that its emphasis was moving beyond social media at the moment and subsequently introducing its Metaverse ambition for linking online social interactions with the actual world.

Despite the fact that software companies such as Apple have physical locations throughout the world, Facebook’s 2.9 billion members have not been able to visit one since the business was created in 2004.

Many companies are buying virtual properties in the virtual world, with electronics giant Samsung opening a metaverse store in the blockchain-powered realm of Decentraland in January.

According to reports, large stores such as Walmart are also planning to enter the realm.

Meta’s Plan to Disappoint Creators – 47.5% Cut on Every Sale

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Facebook’s parent company, Meta, is collecting a 47.5 percent cut on digital assets sold through Horizon Worlds, its virtual reality platform.

Horizon Environments is a free virtual reality game that allows players to create and explore their own virtual worlds. While all of this is part of Mark’s ambition to build a virtual “metaverse,” it comes at a cost to authors.

Horizon Worlds was released last year and is now accessible for Oculus VR headsets in the United States and Canada.

Within the worlds they construct, creators may sell virtual things and effects. Wendy’s “Wendyverse,” for example, is simply an advertisement where frosty aficionados can communicate with one another.

A Meta spokesperson told CNBC:

“Meta will take an overall cut of up to 47.5% on each transaction. That includes a ‘hardware platform fee’ of 30% for sales made through the Meta Quest Store, where it sells apps and games for its virtual reality headsets. On top of that, Horizon Worlds will charge a 17.5% fee.”

Meta’s decision will disappoint the creators

After openly criticizing Apple for collecting a 30% developer charge for in-app purchases in the App Store, this news appears dishonest.

“As we build for the metaverse, we’re focused on unlocking opportunities for creators to make money from their work,” he said. “The 30% fees that Apple takes on transactions make it harder to do that, so we’re updating our subscriptions product so now creators can earn more.”

Mark Zuckerberg

In virtual worlds like Decentraland and The SandBox, organizations and people have been buying everything from art to real estate in the last few months. Snoop Dogg, the hip-hop artist, has bought virtual land, and a fan spent $450,000 for a piece next to him on The Sandbox in December.

“We think it’s a really competitive fee in the industry,” Meta’s VP of Horizon, Vivek Sharma, allegedly told The Verge. We feel that other platforms should be allowed to participate.”

Horizon Worlds (previously Facebook Horizon) is a free online virtual reality game that allows users to create and explore virtual worlds. The game was released on Meta’s Oculus VR headsets in the United States and Canada on December 9, although it has yet to be released globally.


Meta to roll out ‘Zuck Bucks’ for Instagram and Facebook Users

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Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is working on virtual currency for Facebook and Instagram users, dubbed “Zuck bucks” by staff.

It is part of a suite of goods aimed at reducing his platforms’ reliance on advertising in the future metaverse.

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is working on a variety of virtual goods, including digital tokens and “creator coins,” to diversify revenue and re-energize its user base, which is rapidly flocking to upstart competitors like TikTok.

Meta is the largest social media network provider, with revenues rising 37% to $118 billion in 2021.

As advertisers clamored to access Facebook and Instagram’s 4.9 billion monthly active users, TikTok has built up a significant non-ads economy centered on in-app purchases and e-commerce.

Meta is looking for alternative revenue streams

As the popularity of its key social networking sites, such as Facebook and Instagram, declines, the firm, led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is looking for new income sources and features to attract and keep users, a trend that threatens its $118 billion-a-year ad-based business model.

According to many people familiar with the work, Facebook’s finance unit, Meta Financial Technologies, has been researching the establishment of a virtual currency for the metaverse, which employees internally have called “Zuck Bucks.”

“Social tokens” or “reputation tokens” are examples of products that might be utilized as incentives by consumers. It’s also looking into “creator coins,” which influencers on Instagram might use.

TikTok, like Amazon’s Twitch, has a tipping system where fans may buy coins and then use them to buy presents for their favorite producers.

Creators may also buy coins to utilize tools like Promote to raise the popularity of their TikTok videos and gain more viewers or followers.

The projects, sponsored by Facebook’s financial department, Meta Financial Technologies, come after the company’s ill-fated attempt to develop a worldwide cryptocurrency, dubbed Libra and subsequently Diem, which was shelved earlier this year because of regulatory concerns in the United States.

That wasn’t the first time Facebook has considered entering the virtual money realm. It introduced Facebook Credits in 2009 to allow in-app purchases in then-popular games like Zynga’s FarmVille.

While it was a success, it was shut down four years later due to Facebook’s worldwide expansion, which necessitated costly currency changes.

Meta is also considering entering the realm of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), with ambitions to integrate them into social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook.

Web3 related trademarks found in new filings of Meta

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Meta, formerly known as Facebook, intends to enhance its position in the Web3 space. The social media behemoth has applied for eight trademarks to offer Web3 services, including a dating app tailored to cryptocurrency investors.

The social media giant’s attempts to improve its standing in the crypto and metaverse worlds will benefit from the move. Cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will be key aspects of blockchain-based Web3, the next phase of the Internet as we know it, which will boost the metaverse sector. Meta is seeking to bring in new blockchain-based products and services to match with the Web3 market.

According to local media, the company’s future goals include the launch of additional social networking platforms, computer software, e-commerce services, telecom services for digital asset owners, and a metaverse-focused advertising platform.

Meta is also interested in Virtual Reality (VR)-enabled entertainment and digital publishing services, as well as a line-up of VR wearables.

The social media titan is also exploring developing software for e-wallets. However, the corporation has not made any official announcements about its trademark filings. It could take months for Meta to receive permission. However, according to statistics, the typical time for the US Patent and Trademark Office to consider an application is roughly nine and a half months.

8 Web3 related trademark applications

The United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, has received eight trademark applications from Meta, previously Facebook, relating to blockchain technology and its projected metaverse.

1200px Seal of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.svg

The following are the applications and their fields of interest, sorted by serial number:

  • 97320155: Online social networking and dating services, along with a branch dedicated to cryptocurrency investor networking.
  • 97320153: Design and development of Web3-related computer hardware and software, including gaming, e-commerce, and blockchain transactions, among other things.
  • 97320149: Entertainment and electronic publishing services, partly within virtual reality.
  • 97320147: Telecommunication services for electronic assets held on its platform.
  • 97320146: Financial transaction processing services relating to tokens, blockchain assets, cryptocurrencies and other virtual assets.
  • 97320144: Advertising services via virtual or augmented reality networks and the metaverse. 
  • 97320140: Wearable peripherals for video games connected to virtual reality. 
  • 97320136: Downloadable software in the nature of a mobile application, such as for user authentication, online charitable fundraising and most notably, for hardware or e-wallets.

Last week, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, announced that NFTs would be integrated into Instagram’s numerous products in the near future. However, not all of Web3’s crypto projects have been successful. About the same moment, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission filed a lawsuit against Meta, alleging that it engaged in “false, misleading, or deceptive conduct” by running fake celebrity crypto adverts on its platform, resulting in investment losses.

Mark Zuckerberg-backed stablecoin project to fade out soon?

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Mark Zuckerberg-backed stablecoin project Diem seemed to be headed for a dead-end as reports emerged that the Diem Association is supposedly ‘weighing a sale of its assets as a way to return capital to its investor members.’

However it remains unknown with regards to the kind of asset the Diem Association owns, but Bloomberg reported that the group is in talks with investment bankers about selling its intellectual property and finding “a new home for the engineers that developed the technology.”

Having said that, a sale would likely be the final blow to the crypto project that Mark Zuckerberg had once trumpeted. As a matter of fact, on many occasions plans to get the stablecoin off the ground continued to meet tough opposition from reasons such as regulatory pushback and lawmaker concerns.

Things didn’t improve even after rebranding Diem as Libra as several high-profile partners backed out of the project in 2019.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Diem project was scaled down owing to regulatory pressure?

As per media reports, negotiations were not successful between Diem and Fed when the latter did not approve the proposal. Last summer, Facebook started a pilot testing of Novi, the cryptocurrency wallet previously known as Calibra. But the fact that Novi was forced to launch without support for Diem and instead it used a different stablecoin called the Pax Dollar was enough to indicate that Diem’s future remained uncertain.

Things looked hopeful when Facebook exec David Marcus, who was hired by CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2014 from PayPal to oversee its Messenger app as well as the social network’s crypto plans, said at the time that Facebook remained committed to Diem.

“I do want to be clear that our support for Diem hasn’t changed and we intend to launch Novi with Diem once it receives regulatory approval and goes live,” he wrote. But a month later Marcus announced that he was leaving Facebook. Still, there is no official confirmation from the Diem Association regarding the future of the project.

A representative for the Diem Association Michael Crittenden cited the original Bloomberg’s report on the matter and did say it contained unspecified “factual errors,” but declined to elaborate or comment further into the specifics.

Facebook and Instagram Reportedly Working on Allowing Users to Create, Display, Sell NFTs

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According to The Financial Times, social media giant Metawas considering allowing users to build, promote, and trade NFTs on Facebook and Instagram.

If the corporation launches such tools, it will be the most visible demonstration of significant support for NFTs so far, helping to cement the controversial assets’ place in the digital world.

According to the Financial Times, the plans are “early stage and may still change.” According to the journal, staff at Facebook and Instagram are “preparing” a feature that would allow users to show NFTs as profile pics and work on a prototype that will allow users to mint more NFTs. Others at Meta are said to be talking about “launching a platform for users to purchase and trade NFTs.”

What are NFTs?

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digitalized tokens unique in the blockchain network. What an individual is willing to pay for determines its worth. As a result, demand drives pricing.

NFTs, on the other side, are one-of-a-kind and rare; thus, no two are the same. Picture Pokémon cards, rare coins, or a pair of limited-edition Jordans: NFTs create scarcity in otherwise infinitely available assets, complete with a certificate of authenticity. Digital artwork that may be acquired and sold with NFTs includes GIFs, tweets, virtual trade cards, photos of physical objects, and photographs of tangible items are examples of digital artwork that may be purchased and sold using NFTs.

Exactly how far along these plans are is impossible to say, but it’s not the first show of interest in NFTs we’ve seen from Meta’s leaders. Last December, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri stated the firm is “currently exploring NFTs and how we can make them more accessible to a larger audience,” while Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the metaverse would need to enable “ownership of digital goods or NFTs” in October.

Because the tech giants are jumping on the NFT bandwagon, this could create an enormous opportunity and marketspace for artists to showcase their unique NFT collection. They need to provide a more secure platform because many obvious scams show that any photoshop experts can replicate any famous NFTs and lure buyers into their scam.


Coinbase bags new chief marketing officer from Facebook

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Prominent cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase has been under fire following its recent tiff with its users. This did not stop the exchange from moving forward and making progress. In a recent development, the exchange went on to hire its latest chief marketing officer.

Coinbase was called out by an array of users after their funds disappeared without an explanation. Despite this abrupt loss of funds the lack of customer support was what angered the users. The crypto exchange received a lot of backlash for this move. Moving on and focusing on the marketing side of the company, Coinbase decided to recruit Kate Rouch, who was previously working for Facebook.

The exchange welcomed Rouch and revealed her role in the potential development of the platform.

Coinbase recruits former Facebook exec

In its latest blog post, Emilie Choi, the platform’s chief operating officer, went on to welcome Rouch into the company and noted that she would be responsible for looking after the platform’s global brand. Along with this, product, as well as performance marketing, would be overseen by Rouch.

Rouch served Facebook for over 11 years. Now bidding adieu to her role as the global head of brand and product marketing at the social media platform, she was hired by one of the USA’s most prominent exchanges.

Speaking about her latest position, Rouch stated,

“I am so inspired by what I’ve learned about crypto, and the vast ecosystem it is helping to usher forth. At its core, Coinbase is about creating more economic freedom for people. It is a mission I feel passionately about. I can’t wait to get started helping to introduce millions more people to the benefits of crypto.”

Additionally, Rouch hopes to bring millions of more people into the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Several people from prominent firms have been venturing into the crypto space. This further points out the rate at which the crypto-verse is growing.

Facebook’s Diem Co-Creator Bids Adieu To The Project

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Social media giant, Facebook’s interest in the crypto industry created an uproar across the globe. This project had to undergo immense scrutiny from regulators across the globe, which further delayed its launch. The repercussions of these harsh regulatory decisions were so bad that the platform even went on to change its crypto venture’s name from Libra to Diem.

With Diem, Facebook hoped to give its crypto venture a new start. However, a prominent member part of the development of this project bid adieu to Facebook and joined Planet Labs.

Facebook’s Crypto Venture

While the Diem project went on a hiring spree and bagged several experienced members into their team, the project seems to have lost its co-creator to Planet Labs. In a series of tweets, Kevin Weil, Facebook’s Vice President of product announced his departure from the social media platform.

Revealing that he had been working with Facebook for more than five years, Weil pointed out that he had learned an array of things. While he dedicated about three years to the creation of Diem, the prominent digital wallet platform, Novi along with David Marcus and others will reportedly continue developing the project.

Facebook’s main motive with the rollout of the Diem project was to offer financial services to the underbanked and unbanked. However, the regulatory hurdles put forth by governments across the globe staggered this mission. Elaborating on the same, Weil tweeted,

Facebook
Facebook's Diem Co-Creator Bids Adieu To The Project 6

Furthermore, Weil suggested that he was happy to have worked with the social media platform and was ready to pass on the baton to the others. He added,

“That’s what we set out to create with Diem, and I still deeply believe in that mission. The digital wallet we’re building at Novi, in combination with other interoperable Diem wallets being built by companies big and small, can change billions of lives for the better.”

While he had suggested in the past that the launch of Diem could take several years on even decades, the social media platform had announced that they intend to roll out the stablecoin this year.