Facebook Shuts Down Live Shopping Feature To Focus On Reels

Popular social media platform – Facebook has made a resolve to discontinue live shopping, a live stream service that allows creators to broadcast and sell things to an audience and is similar to QVC. According to Facebook, the function will be officially terminated on October 1 as part of the company’s attempt to move attention to Reels.

Facebook notes that it is concentrating on Reels on Facebook and Instagram, Meta’s short-form video product, “since customers’ viewing behaviours are now moving to short-form video”. Although live shopping will no longer be an option on Facebook, for now, it will remain on Instagram.

Live shopping, which debuted in Thailand in 2018, provides another source of revenue for Facebook developers. It enables influencers to hold their own live shopping sessions where they may demonstrate and sell a variety of products, whether from their own store or through an affiliate. Facebook expanded the feature in 2020, about the same time it released a dedicated shopping tab. While live shopping hasn’t lost any of its appeal in China, it doesn’t appear to have taken off in other parts of the world. Last month, TikTok announced its intention to discontinue live shopping in the United States and Europe.

The elimination of live shopping, however, also reveals Facebook’s growing commitment to Reels, a feature for short-form video service that it formally introduced to the site last year. Facebook has even considered altering its algorithm to look more like TikTok, something its parent company, Meta, has previously done to Instagram.  With all videos on the network now being Reels, Instagram has been strongly promoting short-form content, similar to how Facebook has.

Long-time Instagrammers who have come to know the service as a method to share photos with friends expressed concern over the new focus on Reels. After outright announcing to users that the service would become video-centric, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri received backlash, which forced Instagram to hold back some of its improvements.