In what could be contemplated as a scintillating shift towards e-commerce for the California-based world’s largest social networking behemoth, Facebook Inc., that houses four out of top six internet services providers around the globe such as Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, said in a statement on Tuesday that it would expand its “Shops” feature to Facebook Marketplace and messaging app WhatsApp, as anti-trust lawsuits alongside an intensifying ruckus over users’ data privacy issues against the social networking behemoth had been piling up.
Nonetheless, in a separate statement on Tuesday, Facebook Chief Zuckerberg was quoted saying that Facebook Inc.’s latest move to stretch out its “Shops” feature would also enable customizable ads, a long-awaited façade for Facebook sellers.
Aside from that, Facebook Inc had added in the statement that the social media giant’s Shops feature, which had been rolled out last year aimed at laying the frameworks of a strategic shift to e-commerce from ad-tech businesses, had been witnessing about 1.2 million monthly active traders on the platform, as a large chunk of Facebook Inc userbase had turned to Facebook and Instagram to find and buy products.
Facebook Inc. expands the ‘Shops’ feature to WhatsApp, Marketplace.
The Californian social media giant, in tandem, was quoted saying that it would launch an AI-based tool, named ‘Visual Search,’ as early as by next month, which in effect would help Instagram shoppers find a wide range of similar products in ‘Shops’ by just clicking on an item in the photo-sharing app.
Concomitantly, Zuckerberg said that the users would capitalize on the feature by searching an item either on the app or photos of their camera roll, pointing towards a gargantuan gear-up in AI-based shopping.
