Social media giant Facebook has announced that it is shutting down its Live-Shopping feature on October 1 this year. The company said it wants to shift focus to “Reels”, Meta’s short-form video product, as consumers’ viewing behaviors have changed.
“From 1 October 2022, you will no longer be able to host any new or scheduled live shopping events on Facebook,” the company said it the blog post adding,”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.”
Users will still be able to use Facebook Live to broadcast live events but without an option to create product playlists or tag products in the Live videos.
Facebook first launched Live Shopping in Thailand in 2018, opening up another revenue stream for creators on the platform. The social media network rolled out Live Shopping on a wider scale in November 2020, with an aim to allow users to integrate products into interactive live streams, and now ending it less than two years after its launch.
Notably, e-commerce giant Amazon has also been pushing the Live Shopping feature and terming it the “future of retail.” However, Livestream shopping has failed to launch in the U.S. market despite Amazon’s desperate effort and its success in China.
Recently, Meta has been surrounded by controversy for its effort to replicate its competitor TikTok. Following the criticism, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri admitted that the changes are “not yet good.” This is also the time when Facebook recorded its first ever revenue drop in the June quarter.
The company reported a 1 percent drop in revenue since going public in 2007. In 2021, Facebook recorded a revenue of $29.07 billion in the second quarter, reaching $28.8 billion this year. The overall profit for Meta, its parent company, fell 36 percent to $6.7 billion.
