Was Facebook's $1 Billion Acquisition of Instagram the Bargain of the Century??? (6)
Was Facebook's $1 Billion Acquisition of Instagram the Bargain of the Century???
Looks like it now. This can be huge, and it could make Instagram the most ridiculously profitable affiliate marketing play for Facebook. Looks like Zuckerberg is definitely on his way to dethrone Bill Gates as the richest person in the world.
Instagram wants you to start shopping IN the app
excerpted from http://uk.businessinsider.com/instag...opping-2016-11
Instagram is testing a new feature that will allow you to shop for products direct from the app, the company announced Tuesday.
From next week, 20 US-based retail brands — including Warby Parky, J.Crew, and Levi's — will be trialing the feature, which overlays a "Tap here to view products" call-to-action button on their photos.
Users tapping on the button will see the names of the products in the image and their prices. Users can also click through to see a more detailed product description and, if they are interested, they can click "shop now" to be directed to the retailer's website.
Jim Squires, Instagram's director of market operations, told Business Insider the new feature was launched to reflect the way people are already using the app.
He said internal research showed 50% of Instagram users follow a business on the app, while 60% say they have discovered new products and services on Instagram.
Squires said Instagram accepts that people aren't necessarily visiting the app in a shopping mindset, but that they are using it for inspiration. And at the moment, when users are inspired, they are having to jump out of the app to search for the product on the retailer's website. Instagram wants to make that process more seamless.
"It makes Instagram better for people because when you get inspired, it's not a satisfying experience if you can't take action and learn and explore further. It brings more depth and experience to what they are doing on the platform," Squires said.
For now, the 20 test retailers won't need to pay to use the shopping feature, but Instagram is exploring adding an advertising element to it — most likely letting retailers push their product photos to users who are not following their accounts.
Other features to come later down the line will likely include a "save product for later" function and the expansion of the service to more brands in more geographies.
However, Instagram isn't looking to take an affiliate fee from sales of products that can be directly attributed to the app's shopping function — at least not yet.
Wow, this could be a huge revenue stream for those involved - imagine what it could mean in case they could develop an algo able to identify products in peoples photos and link to related retailers 
When adding FB's existing user base and reach, definitely looks like a bargain.
Wonder if advertising can still grow a lot or if online advertising just takes away market share from offline advertising.
Wow if they execute this, it's game over.
Originally Posted by matuloo
Yes, it was. And the new feature they are introducing just proves how facebook understand performance marketing as the core of the business side of the company. I believe that there was already something similar before with Pinterest and with an advertising service that some high profile fashion blogs implemented a few years ago.
There is a very bright future in affiliate marketing if you look close to the new trends that are starting, both apple and google are starting to introduce third party support for their payments systems, will remove all the friction that is needed in order to buy stuff online, while before you will need to take your credit card and introduce the numbers and all that, we are so close to people just buying the stuff with their fingerprint. I'm sure facebook will work closely with Apple to integrate apple pay to this new system and make the experience as native as it can be.
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