Facebook Live Shopping is the latest casualty in Meta's transition to short-form video.
The feature—a sort of modern Home Shopping Network—allows business owners to showcase and sell products in live videos, answering questions and getting feedback in real time.
But Meta now says "consumers’ viewing behaviors are shifting to short-form video," so it's doing away with shoppable live streams on its main social network and encouraging merchants to experiment with Reels and Reels ads on Facebook and Instagram.
Facebook users can still host live videos, they just won't be able to "create product playlists or tag products" during the stream, effective Oct. 1.
Live Shopping on Instagram will live on, allowing presenters to tag up to 30 products in Reels. Businesses with checkout-enabled shops, meanwhile, can collaborate with other creators and schedule a broadcast from one hour to three months in advance.
The news comes shortly after Instagram did an about-face on a shift to TikTok-like full-screen videos and feeds full of content from random accounts after some high-profile criticism.
Just don't expect it to give up on video: Instagram Head Adam Mosseri has promised a continued emphasis on Reels—starting with a test to automatically turn video posts into Reels, as well as new templates that make it easier to film and share the 90-second clips. Mosseri will also reportedly be temporarily relocating to London to work with the UK team on efforts to compete against TikTok and embrace the metaverse, The Financial Times reports.
In April, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Instagram users spend 20% of their time on the app watching Reels. Ironically, many of those are likely reposted TikToks, which the company aims to control by ranking videos for originality (i.e. those not created on a rival platform).