Instagram Wants to Be Your Mall | NYT

I imagine Instagram shopping could be further streamlined with a platform-integrated payments service...

"Unlike with its outside shopping links, Instagram will be collecting a fee from transactions completed via its platform, which makes the checkout tool potentially an extremely lucrative undertaking for Instagram. Mr. Shah declined to share the fee rate.

“Our primary business remains advertising, and we believe this will be an important driver of that business,” he said. “But you can think of this as a potential new business for us.”

Given what is understood to be a growing interest in commerce and shopping at Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, some have wondered whether the introduction of this functionality presages further extension to come."

Instagram Wants to Be Your Mall | NYT