In an effort to quell frustrated online media companies think networks like Facebook
The move would be an extension of Facebook's existing 'Instant Articles' feature, which essentially enables people to read articles from external sources directly on Facebook's site, which is convenient for users but means online traffic is diverted from their own websites.
Facebook's Head of News Partnerships, Campbell Brown, said "the current plan is to require payments after reading 10 articles from a publisher through Facebook."
Variations could be made however, to this scheme. For example, instead of requiring direct payments, readers could simply be rerouted to subscription pages or be incentivized in some way to visit the media outlet's page. This sort of thing would be classified as a "metered pay wall product similar to those used by some publishers."
The scheme is going to be tested out with a small group of media outlets in October. If results prove to be positive, then the program will be expanded upon next year on a larger scale. The media companies that will be players have not been announced.
Publishers have been dissatisfied with Facebook for a variety of reasons. Besides losing direct contact with their audience and their payments as a consequence, people have been concerned with the lack of filtration that Facebook exercises over its media content. For instance, the social media network often mistakenly distributes false articles, which readers then mis-identify as credible news. This has allowed many of Facebook's competitors, such as Google,
This move may also be the latest in many big companies' efforts to evade recent "regulatory and antitrust scrutiny." Facebook knows that it needs to maintain important relationships with media developers as a large portion of their website activity, traffic and revenue comes from them. If these publishers were ever to severe ties with Facebook, it could lose a big chunk of the $30 billion it gains from ad revenue.
Clearly, this action has appeased investors for now, as Facebook's stock rose significantly on Tuesday after the news was announced. The question is, will the implementation of such schemes be enough to keep the momentum going, or will they prove unsuccessful and further dis-incentivize media publishers from partnering with Facebook?
- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/technology/facebook-subscription-instant-articles.html
- http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/facebook-working-charge-reading-news-articles-48729841
- http://nypost.com/2017/07/20/facebook-wants-to-charge-you-to-read-news-articles/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/technology/facebook-european-union-fine-whatsapp.html
- https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Facebook-Mobile-Ad-Revenues-Near-30-Billion-Next-Year/1014658