In order to enhance their service Facebook is soon going to let its users send money via Facebook Messenger. Talking about user experience, Facebook is now planning for a new initiative called the ‘Instant Articles’, in which Facebook will host third-party content. to carry out this initiative, it is in talks with publications like New York Times and National Geographic along with a few other partners.
Publishers currently post links on Facebook to their content. This online traffic from the social media for such news sites will give a boast to the publications. Since opening the link on mobile devices is usually slow and frustrates the user, Facebook with ‘Instant Articles’ aims to speed up the process. A survey by Pew Research Center last year claimed approximately 50% read news on Facebook, usually concerning politics or the government.
Chris Cox, Facebook’s Chief product officer stated that if publishers let them (Facebook) host their content, they will make it look beautiful and get more views. This move is considerably taken with the intention of users spending more time on their website and have lesser issues consuming news.
To convince and woo publishers, the Social media giant offered to change the history of the revenue-sharing model. It also offers to distribute publishers content according to people familiar with it. Facebook is also letting publishers keep the entire revenue from the ads they sell on Facebook-hosted news site stated by the people aware and familiar with the matter. Earlier Facebook used to keep roughly around 30% of the revenue.
Somehow the deal only seems to benefit Facebook and publishers seems to be having second thoughts about it. Not all publications are comfortable with the idea of Facebook having complete control over their content. This offer haven’t attracted many publishers as of now. An executive of a publisher stated that it isn’t about the bottom line and publishers will want to defend other aspects of the business.
The deals with the launch partners are still in process. They plan to start the publication by the end of May’15, though the timing might change. It’s planning to start with video and news from BuzzFeed, National Geographic and The New York Times.
It is yet not clear how Facebook will publish the advertisements. It’s not even confirmed that if the publishers will be able to place or measure the ads they sell within Facebook. As opposed to those rivals (Google), Facebook would want publishers to use their own advertisement products.
Since, there have been complaints whenever changes took place in Facebook’s formula, for instance how items were placed in the user’s news feed, is also probably affecting publishers decisions.
