KUALA LUMPUR: Meta Platforms Inc today announced that businesses in Asia Pacific (APAC) will no longer be able to host a shop on their Facebook or Instagram page or use product tagging in posts beginning Aug 10, 2023, except in seven markets where it sees a future opportunity to bring checkout to those markets.

The seven markets are Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Japan, Indonesia and Thailand.

"In those selected markets, we'll continue to support Shops without checkout on Facebook and Instagram enabled to make the transition as easy as possible," it said in a statement.

Meta said businesses with a shop located in all other markets across APAC will no longer be able to host a shop on their Facebook or Instagram page unless the shop has checkout on Facebook and Instagram enabled in the US.

It added that businesses without an accessible shop will no longer be able to use features associated with shops including product tagging (in posts, reels or stories) and creating new custom/lookalike audiences derived from people who visited a shop.

On Instagram, ads with product tags will continue to be available as a solution to enable new and existing customers to discover your products at scale via an experience that is independent of shops.

"Businesses actively leveraging ads with product tags do not need to take any action and their campaigns will continue uninterrupted," Meta said.

However, businesses with a shop located in 11 markets namely Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and Ukraine will continue to be able to use Facebook and Instagram shops until further notice.

Meta encourages businesses to continue using a mix of its most performant free and paid tools to find customers and drive sales, including businesses that can invest their marketing spend smarter by connecting with customers based on their interests.

"Now globally available, Advantage+ shopping campaigns help businesses get smarter and faster about which campaigns are converting to maximise the return of investment of their ads investment," it added.

It noted that businesses can create short-form video content to get discovered by customers who are not already following their brand.

Meta said reels were the fastest-growing format on Meta apps and together with feed, stories and messaging, the company offers a suite of tools that enable businesses to share their brand story, build connections and grow their business.

Meanwhile, messaging across WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, businesses can message and run click-to-message ads that help connect them directly with shoppers as messaging allows businesses to sell, support and market their products without leaving the chat thread.

-- BERNAMA