Meta Platforms
META
recently announced that Instagram is getting a new feature that will allow users to buy from small businesses through direct messages.
Instagram users can directly make purchases from small businesses on Instagram without leaving the chat. Users can communicate regarding a particular product directly with sellers, which enhances the communication between potential customers and sellers and make purchases using Meta Pay.
Meta will help small business owners set up their own digital storefront by utilizing Shops. Meta launched Shops back in 2020 to help people find and buy products on Facebook and Instagram.
The recent feature launched by Meta will aid the company in expanding its utility of Shops and Meta Pay and help Meta reach its long-term goal of creating the Metaverse.
Meta Platforms, Inc. Price and Consensus
Meta Platforms, Inc. price-consensus-chart
|
Meta Platforms, Inc. Quote
Meta’s New Feature to Aid in Regaining Lost E-Commerce Revenues
Meta’s revenue growth was driven exponentially by the e-commerce boom during the pandemic. However, the company is currently facing the worst downturn in its history due to the global macro-economic scenario, geopolitical tensions, rising inflation and interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Shares of Meta Platforms, which currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), have tumbled 50% in the year-to-date period compared with the Zacks
Internet – Software
industry’s decline of 49.6%.
You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here
.
Meta’s financial plans to generate sufficient operating income from its Family of Apps business segment to fund the growth of its Reality Labs have taken a major hit. Lately, the company has been closing various long-term projects, which were burning a lot of cash.
One of the most recent impediments has been the discontinuation of its cryptocurrency wallet pilot project — Novi. This is a major setback for Meta Platforms in its efforts to develop Metaverse as an independent commercial platform as both the crypto and NFT markets came crashing down.
Intensifying competition for ad dollars and share in the NFT space from the likes of
Snap
SNAP
and
Twitter
TWTR
and
Microsoft
MSFT
have been other headwinds.
Snap is providing competition to Meta in the Metaverse. Snap has collaborated with Vogue to feature a virtual try-on experience of select pieces from Balenciaga, Dior and Gucci, which will be available for Snapchatters globally.
Meta has been beaten by Twitter as the first social media giant to enter the NFT marketplace by launching a tool to showcase and sell NFTs on its platform.
Microsoft’s M12 venture fund recently invested in NFT startup, Palm NFT Studio, to develop projects on the Palm Protocol, an energy-efficient Ethereum sidechain.
Even though Meta’s short-term growth looks tepid, the company’s decision to stop certain investments that are costing it huge amounts of money is in sync with its long-term growth.
Meta Platforms is currently looking to increase its revenues from its Family of Apps business segment, which will fund the growth of its Metaverse.
As such, the launch of its recent feature will help Meta to compete against users over user engagement and increase the adoption of Meta Pay and Shop.
Each week one billion users message businesses across Meta’s family of apps. The recently launched feature will help increase the growth of e-commerce and help in funding the growth of Metaverse.
The Metaverse market, globally, is expected to reach $800 billion by 2024, per a
Bloomberg
report. According to the latest report from Fortune Business Insights, the global metaverse market is expected to witness a CAGR of 47.6% between 2022 and 2029, reaching from an estimated $100.27 billion in 2022 to $1,527.55 billion by 2029.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.
Click to get this free report
