As Instagram’s parent company Facebook plots a controversial pivot to focus on private and encrypted messaging across its suite of products, the Checkout on Instagram news signals that the popular photo and video sharing app will continue to pursue its own ambitions, namely in building out a social commerce business. The new tool could be a powerful revenue driver for Instagram, which has quickly become a pillar of Facebook’s growth strategy thanks to features like the disappearing photo and video collages called Stories and previous shopping-related technology like tappable photos.
