Instagram expands its creator marketplace to 10 new countries | TechCrunch

Over the weekend, Instagram announced that it is expanding its creator marketplace to 10 new countries — this marketplace connects brands with creators to foster collaboration. The new regions include South Korea, Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain, Israel, Turkey, Mexico, Argentina and Indonesia.

Meta first introduced this marketplace to facilitate paid partnerships in the U.S. to select users in 2022 and later added “thousands” of creators and brands. In February, the company launched this feature in eight new markets, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Japan, India and Brazil.

While creators in China can’t access Instagram, Meta allows China-based brands to connect with creators in the regions where the marketplace is available.

To join this program, creators have to be at least 18 years old, hold a professional account, and meet the social network’s requirements, such as having a “significant following.” Meta doesn’t specify the number of followers you need to meet that criteria.

Once a creator joins the program from the professional dashboard, they can specify topics of interest and relevant brands to get discovered by companies. Creators can look at inbound interest for collaboration through the “partnership messages” inbox.

Other social networks, such as Snap, YouTube and TikTok, have expanded their efforts to connect brands and creators. Earlier this month, photo editing app VSCO also launched a marketplace for brands to discover professional photographers to work with. Other startups such as Accel-backed Catch+Release and Agentio, which is backed by Craft Ventures and AlleyCorp, have tried to formalize the brand/creator interactions.