Mar 24, 2015
In recent months, Facebook has been quietly
holding talks with at least half a dozen media companies about hosting
their content inside Facebook rather than making users tap a link to go
to an external site.
The new proposal by Facebook carries another
risk for publishers: the loss of valuable consumer data. When readers
click on an article, an array of tracking tools allow the host site to
collect valuable information on who they are, how often they visit and
what else they have done on the web.
And if Facebook pushes beyond the experimental
stage and makes content hosted on the site commonplace, those who do not
participate in the program could lose substantial traffic — a factor
that has played into the thinking of some publishers. Their articles
might load more slowly than their competitors’, and over time readers
might avoid those sites.
- From the New York Times article: Facebook May Host News Sites’ Content
Last night, I came across an incredibly important article from the New York
Times, which described Facebook’s plan to provide direct access to
other websites’ content in exchange for some sort of advertising
partnership. The implications of this are so huge that at this point I
have far more questions than answers.
Let’s start with a few excerpts from the article:
With 1.4 billion users, the social media site
has become a vital source of traffic for publishers looking to reach an
increasingly fragmented audience glued to smartphones. In recent months,
Facebook has been quietly holding talks with at least half a dozen
media companies about hosting their content inside Facebook rather than
making users tap a link to go to an external site.
Such a plan would represent a leap of faith for
news organizations accustomed to keeping their readers within their own
ecosystems, as well as accumulating valuable data on them. Facebook has
been trying to allay their fears, according to several of the people
briefed on the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they
were bound by nondisclosure agreements.
Facebook intends to begin testing the new format
in the next several months, according to two people with knowledge of
the discussions. The initial partners are expected to be The New York
Times, BuzzFeed and National Geographic, although others may be added
since discussions are continuing. The Times and Facebook are moving
closer to a firm deal, one person said.
Facebook has said publicly that it wants to make
the experience of consuming content online more seamless. News articles
on Facebook are currently linked to the publisher’s own website,
and open in a web browser, typically taking about eight seconds to
load. Facebook thinks that this is too much time, especially on a mobile
device, and that when it comes to catching the roving eyeballs of
readers, milliseconds matter.
The Huffington Post and the business and
economics website Quartz were also approached. Both also declined to
discuss their involvement.
Facebook declined to comment on its specific
discussions with publishers. But the company noted that it had provided
features to help publishers get better traction on Facebook, including
tools unveiled in December that let them target their articles to
specific groups of Facebook users, such as young women living in New York who like to travel.
The new proposal by Facebook carries another
risk for publishers: the loss of valuable consumer data. When readers
click on an article, an array of tracking tools allow the host site to
collect valuable information on who they are, how often they visit and
what else they have done on the web.
And if Facebook pushes beyond the experimental
stage and makes content hosted on the site commonplace, those who do not
participate in the program could lose substantial traffic — a factor
that has played into the thinking of some publishers. Their articles
might load more slowly than their competitors’, and over time readers
might avoid those sites.
And just as Facebook has changed its news feed
to automatically play videos hosted directly on the site, giving them an
advantage compared with videos hosted on YouTube, it could change the
feed to give priority to articles hosted directly on its site.
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