Chirpify, a Portland-based startup, has developed a commerce platform that turns Instagram photos into social moments for transactions. The company has raised $1.3 million in seed funding and has a small base of in-stream sellers, including Taco Bell and Green Day.
Chirpify has upgraded its service to support Instagram transactions, allowing consumers and businesses to buy, sell, donate or exchange money directly within the Instagram app. Chirpify sellers can post a photo to Instagram and include a comment with “#InstaSale” and the dollar amount to initiate a sale.
The status update is automatically converted into a listing, and photo viewers can respond with “buy” in the Instagram comment section to purchase the item. Chirpify takes a 5% cut of transactions and charges sellers the fee each time they make a sale.
Chirpify estimates that 40% of the world’s most popular brands are on Instagram, making Instagram commerce a potentially lucrative opportunity. Facebook has not commented on Chirpify’s plans to monetize its prized photo-sharing property.