Instagram May Soon Charge for Links in Posts
INTERNET: A patent recently filed by Instagram suggests a new source of income for the application
A new “feature” intended for influencers could very soon appear on Instagram. Indeed, according to a patent discovered by Mike Murphy, Instagram could consider charging bloggers for setting up links in post captions. A pop-up window would appear to ask the user whether or not they want to pay in order to make the link viable and clickable.
The URL links introduced in captions of photos or videos were until now unusable. The new functionality could therefore prove to be very useful, especially for influencers who wish to refer to a sponsored page or other. Until now, users and brands were required to indicate “Link in bio” in order to place a clickable URL. They would therefore be inclined to pay a small sum, often derisory in comparison with the contracts they are likely to sign.
This function could just as easily stay in the drawers
On the patent, the functionality is described as follows: “If the online system detects a text string identifying an address in the caption of a post, the system will prompt the user to pay a fee in exchange for the creation of a post. a link. ”
However, it should be noted that this is a patent. Brands and other companies file dozens of patents per year, without actually exploiting half of them. It is therefore impossible to predict if or when Instagram will use this patent.
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