Instagram is planning to gradually roll back its shopping feature in an effort to drive more direct ad revenue. Meta's ad business faced serious trouble after Apple implemented some ad tracking changes on iOS.
An internal memo sent to staff said that the existing shopping page will eventually disappear. Over the next few months, a simpler and less personalised version of the shopping page, Tab Lite, will be tested, reported Reuters.
A public test will be launched on Wednesday notifying users to switch to the Tab Lite version. The step is being considered to be part of moving away from some long-term projects and focusing on short-form video business.
Another recent report suggested that Meta is planning to add more paid features to Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. The three main social apps of Meta together have billions of users. A new unit called New Monetization Experiences led by Meta's former Head of Research, Pratiti RayChoudhury is being set up to work on possible paid features.
Meta's VP of monetization overseeing the group, John Hegeman, told The Verge the company is committed to growing its ad business and it has no plans to let people pay to turn off ads. He added that Meta sees opportunities to build new types of products, features, and experiences that people would be willing to pay for.
Ads are Meta's major revenue stream. But now, the company is looking at a five-year span to make paid features a meaningful part of its business.
Many social media apps are testing paid features as they already have an engaged user base. TikTok started testing paid subscriptions a few months ago and Twitter introduced Super Follows. Telegram and Snapchat have also launched paid tiers that offer additional features this year.