Back in the year 2018, Facebook launched a video streaming tab called Facebook Watch, and the company claims that this two-year-old video platform now attracts more than 1.25 billion visitors each month. Facebook Watch is an on-demand service to discover clips across Facebook. It is worth noting that these 1.25 billion monthly visitors of Facebook Watch makes up nearly 46% of the total of 2.7 billion monthly active users of Facebook. In comparison, in June of last year, the social media giant revealed that 720 million users were watching at least 1 minute of Facebook Watch content each month.
But the past few months have been challenging for several content creators as well as business owners due to the coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, Head of Video Products Paresh Rajwat wrote in a blog post that the company is continuing to build new tools to help its partners so they can expand their presence on the social media platform and diversify their revenue. Moreover, the social media giant has also introduced music videos in Facebook Watch to all users in the United States, Thailand, and India.
Facebook Watch offers a mixture of live content, cooking shows, sports, and user-generated clips, and this platform has been working to build an audience on par with Google-owned video platform YouTube. Although the social media giant is not saying specifically how those numbers have changed during the coronavirus pandemic, Rajwat stated that there was ‘a really big surge’ at the beginning of the coronavirus forced lockdowns. Rajwat added that this surge has not subsided as the society begins to reopen. Many video services such as Netflix have recorded a dramatic growth during the coronavirus pandemic.
Rajwat also noted that while Facebook Watch is built on ‘the social layer of Facebook’ with clips shareable across several products of Facebook, the views are happening on Facebook Watch itself. Live programming has increased during the coronavirus pandemic, and Facebook also revealed that 13.7 million users tuned in to watch the UEFA Champions League final in Latin America. Rajwat noted that the live video section within Facebook Watch helped the UEFA Champions League final rack up 13.7 million viewers, and he also added that Perry’s clip was watched by ‘millions.’
Recently, the social media giant announced that publishers as well as other businesses would be able to charge for access to live online events, and the company will charge no fees for the next year. Successful publishers on Watch include large publishers such as BuzzFeed, organizations like UFC, and individual content creators such as Brandi Guice.
Read next: Facebook is putting a forward message limit on the Messenger app to curb down misinformation and propaganda
But the past few months have been challenging for several content creators as well as business owners due to the coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, Head of Video Products Paresh Rajwat wrote in a blog post that the company is continuing to build new tools to help its partners so they can expand their presence on the social media platform and diversify their revenue. Moreover, the social media giant has also introduced music videos in Facebook Watch to all users in the United States, Thailand, and India.
Facebook Watch offers a mixture of live content, cooking shows, sports, and user-generated clips, and this platform has been working to build an audience on par with Google-owned video platform YouTube. Although the social media giant is not saying specifically how those numbers have changed during the coronavirus pandemic, Rajwat stated that there was ‘a really big surge’ at the beginning of the coronavirus forced lockdowns. Rajwat added that this surge has not subsided as the society begins to reopen. Many video services such as Netflix have recorded a dramatic growth during the coronavirus pandemic.
Rajwat also noted that while Facebook Watch is built on ‘the social layer of Facebook’ with clips shareable across several products of Facebook, the views are happening on Facebook Watch itself. Live programming has increased during the coronavirus pandemic, and Facebook also revealed that 13.7 million users tuned in to watch the UEFA Champions League final in Latin America. Rajwat noted that the live video section within Facebook Watch helped the UEFA Champions League final rack up 13.7 million viewers, and he also added that Perry’s clip was watched by ‘millions.’
Recently, the social media giant announced that publishers as well as other businesses would be able to charge for access to live online events, and the company will charge no fees for the next year. Successful publishers on Watch include large publishers such as BuzzFeed, organizations like UFC, and individual content creators such as Brandi Guice.
Read next: Facebook is putting a forward message limit on the Messenger app to curb down misinformation and propaganda
