Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) launched Instant Articles in 2015 with the aim of changing how content creators publish their work while also promising more ad revenue but it seems the company’s plan with the service failed to take off.
There was a lot of hype behind Instant Articles at the time of its introduction. There was also a lot of worry because it was something new that was probably about to disrupt the already existing ways in which content creators earn revenue. Some were open to the idea of letting Facebook distribute content on its platform while others remained skeptical.
Facebook was positioned to gain more than content creators
One of the worries that was presented by skeptical publishers was that the California-based company would have reaped more benefit from the deal than content creators. The firm also planned to capitalize on the fact that some publishers were trying to find new ways of reaching a wider market.
Facebook aimed to capitalize on the needs of the publishers by offering its massive user base which consists of more than 1 billion people subscribed to the company’s social platform. However, it looks that the social network giant was a bit too ambitious with the plan because it has failed to take off as expected.
“The idea that these products could meaningfully impact the revenue of the news industry just didn’t really come up. I don’t know that anyone [at Facebook] took that piece all that seriously,” one of Facebook’s employees told The Verge.
Could Facebook’s plan for revenue sharing have been the problem?
The company has constantly faced the question of monetization. This is especially with regards to how it planned to share revenue with content creators. Facebook failed to focus on solving the monetization problem since its main aim was to convince media firms to hand over content and this was not an ideal move for creators because it failed to focus on generating attractive revenue for them.
Facebook stock closed Monday’s trading session at $141.42, marking a 1.46% or $2.03 improvement from the previous close.