Instagram is getting rid of live shopping

Instagram will no longer let creators tag products in livestreams starting in March, the company announced on Tuesday. “Beginning on March 16, 2023, you will no longer be able to tag products in live broadcasts on Instagram,” the company wrote on an Instagram support page. “This change will help us focus on products and features that provide the most value to our users.”

The change marks Meta’s next big step away from live shopping. The company is kicking the shopping tab out of Instagram’s home feed in February, and it shut down live shopping on Facebook in October. However, shops on Instagram aren’t entirely going away. “You will still be able to set up and run your shop on Instagram as we continue to invest in shopping experiences for people and businesses across feed, stories, Reels, ads and more,” Instagram says. And other livestreaming features are unaffected.

Many tech companies have invested heavily in QVC-like live shopping features following the huge popularity of live shopping in China. But while Meta is stepping back, other social platforms are still working on shopping tools. TikTok started testing its in-app shopping feature in the US in November, for example, and is reportedly working on live shopping in the US as well. YouTube lets creators sell products right on the platform thanks to a partnership with Shopify. And Amazon’s live shopping platform has a bunch of streams you can watch right now.