Instagram has had an interesting evolution in recent years. The Facebook-owned platform has ceased to be a platform for sharing filtered images to become a true ally of brands. Google knows this and does not expect to sit idly by. Currently, Instagram has more than one billion monthly active users, with an average of 206 minutes per month on the platform, with which the advertising revenue of the platform will go from the 4.1 billion dollars projected at the end of 2017 to 10.87 billion dollars during 2019, according to eMarketer data. The platform Indonesia Mobile Database found a way to capitalize on each of its tools and the best example is its Stories, which just a couple of years after its birth, could generate more than 2,000 million dollars according to data from Nomura. Now the social network has activated the Checkout function, which has started a beta phase with 23 brands, which will allow them to make sales of their products, without forcing users to leave the platform. This function is a direct competition to services such as Google Shopping, a service that allows you to create campaigns
Offering you the possibility of organizing and displaying the products of an online store on the search page to generate sales.Although the processes followed by the products of both firms may differ from each other, the truth is that both play under the same principle: offering the consumer information that can potentially shorten the path to making a purchase. In this sense, Google has seen its position threatened not only by players like Instagram but also by the new regulations that various authorities – especially in the European Union – have imposed on the privacy and security of users in this type of transaction. During 2017, the European Brother Cell Phone List Commission imposed a fine of 2 thousand 420 million euros on Google for how it favored its Google Shopping comparison platform in searches, a fact that, added to the recent launch of Instagram, has forced the company to “G” has modified his proposal. The change lies in the creation of a new ad format that “includes direct links to other [rival] comparators in addition to product offers from stores.” This way, in addition to the Shopping ad carousel displayed on Google’s general search results pages, a second comparer ad carousel may appear. Users can switch between the “Products” view, which shows Shopping ads, and the “Comparison Websites” view, which includes product comparison ads.
This is intended to give greater transparency to the recommendation and purchase process, thereby directly benefiting the consumer. Movement is more than necessary to stay in the game. Google knows that if it does not modify its proposal, it will lose more than the millions it has to pay for the fines imposed.The consumer is increasingly critical about issues of ethics and transparency. Not for nothing Instagram with its new tool enabled a series of functions related to data protection that offers the guarantee that brands will only obtain the address to which the purchased products will be sent and the receipt contact. Fair competition and consumer protection in purchasing processes is now a new driver in user decisions and not complying with them, in addition to getting brands into trouble with the corresponding authorities, means losing ground in a field action that in itself is increasingly competitive.
