Facebook Enters Video Streaming Market With Watch Platform
Facebook is giving its original video content creators a new channel to promote their content. The new Watch page will split ad revenue between partners and Facebook, and it started showing up to a subset of its users in the United States on Wednesday, Aug. 9.
Daniel Danker, Director of Product for the social media giant, introduced their new platform, Watch, through a news statement released on Aug. 9. Danker described Watch as a way for publishers and content creators to find an audience and earn money along the way, presumably by advertising revenue, similar to YouTube content providers.
Facebook will keep 45 percent of ad revenue earned by content on the new Watch platform, with the remaining 55 percent going to the content producer, according to Tech Crunch.
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Founder Mark Zuckerberg hopes that videos produced through the Facebook Watch platform will eventually form communities around them. "Watching a show doesn't have to be passive. It can be a chance to share an experience and bring people together who care about the same things," he said in his post on Thursday, Aug. 10.
He adds that he eventually sees Watch as a home to a variety of shows and original content, including reality shows, sports events, and content from regular Facebook users. This is much in the same way that YouTube and Snapchat have tried ways to cultivate original video content on their platforms, including funding original series and signing studios as partners.
For now, there's no definite timeline for the complete rollout of Facebook Watch. "We'll be introducing Watch to a limited group of people in the U.S. and plan to bring the experience to more people soon," Danker said.
"Similarly, we'll be opening up Shows to a limited group of creators and plan to roll out to all soon," he added.
The video below gives a short overview of the new features the Facebook plans to bring to video content creators and viewers through the new Facebook Watch.
