Facebook Watch is expanding, even though it fails to gain much traction among younger native and digital audiences. Today, the platform announced that it was expanding its 15-second ads to more than a dozen new countries, as well as launching Watch on desktop globally and on Facebook Lite. The move comes just as Facebook cut funding for some of its original news shows made in association with CNN, BuzzfeedY ABC News Information reported today.
While Facebook’s budget for news content remains at $ 90 million, the company is reallocating the funds to other programs. Information It also reported that advertising revenue generated by Facebook Watch has fallen below expectations.
In October, Facebook announced that it had partnered with MTV to bring back the classic reality show. The real world with an international focus, as well as an interactive game show called Confetti for the markets of Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. Recode This afternoon he also reported that Facebook is in talks with HBO to sell a subscription to the service that can only be accessed within the mobile app, and most likely through the View tab. So Facebook’s priorities seem to be moving more towards new twists on classic television programming, rather than trying to capitalize on the popularity of digital media brands.
Watch hides the monthly metric for unique visitors in favor of user counts.
It’s been almost a year and a half since Facebook Watch was first launched, and the audience has been miniscule compared to YouTube, Twitch, and other more mature platforms. That can be a product of poor marketing and conscience. Twelve months later, 50% of U.S. adults were virtually unaware of Facebook Watch, according to a recent survey by the Diffusion Group. Facebook hasn’t disclosed unique Watch visitors, and instead the company counts its repeat visitors as separate views. Today, the company said that more than 400 million users watch at least one minute of video per month. Contrast that with YouTube’s roughly 1.9 billion monthly active users as of September of this year, according to Omnicore statistics.
The news that Facebook will expand ads in more countries and continue to grow Watch on Desktop indicates that it views videos, especially videos tailored for international markets, as an extremely valuable growth opportunity for its sprawling ad empire. New markets in which Watch will expand include China (Hong Kong), India (Bangladesh), South Africa, Taiwan, Italy, Saudi Arabia, among others. The service has also reportedly been in talks with other media companies about reaching out to the 30-plus demographic, after discovering that teens were fleeing Facebook in favor of its younger platform, hipper sister. , Instagram.
