Dive Brief:

• In a move that gives creators more virtual options to interact with shoppers, Instagram released Live Rooms, which allows users to create a room with up to three other people and livestream it, the company announced on Monday.

• The feature will enable viewers to purchase badges for their favorite hosts and use features like Shopping and Live Fundraisers, the company said.

• The company said the feature would soon be available to Instagram users globally. Instagram also will introduce new moderator controls and audio features over the next few months, per the announcement.

Dive Insight:

Given that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted much of the economy, creators from industries like fitness, music, food and beauty have increasingly relied on Instagram Live to engage with their followers, Instagram said in its announcement. The idea of Live Rooms is to enable users to build and monetize their skills and creations, per the statement. 

"We hope that doubling up on Live will open up more creative opportunities — start a talk show, host a jam session or co-create with other artists, host more engaging Q&As or tutorials with your following, or just hang out with more of your friends," the company wrote. 

The launch of Live Rooms is an extension of Instagram's previous social commerce features. Last July, Instagram debuted an e-commerce feature called Instagram Shop, which lets users buy products and purchase with Facebook Pay. The platform also introduced "Shopping in Reels", a tool that allows users and sellers to tag products when they create Reels on Instagram, in December to help merchants and creators promote products. 

Instagram expanded its Reels feature in August, which allows users to create short video clips similar to its global rival TikTok. But in October, Shopify and TikTok teamed up to create a new channel and collaborate on e-commerce features. Per a Sensor Tower report, TikTok generated $4.7 million in revenue on Christmas.