To celebrate 10 years of Creator Weekly, I’m sharing tech highlights from 2015 that still resonate 10 years later. This update was for the week ending July 11, 2015.
Nieman Lab headline, October 12, 2018
And then it fell apart. The metrics Facebook gave creators, media companies and advertisers at the time were grossly inflated.
In 2016 Facebook announced that there were errors in the video view metrics that had started in 2015, and maybe earlier. And it turned out that even that acknowledgement wasn’t entirely correct, and the numbers were even more inflated than Facebook had acknowledged.
As Laura Hazard Owen at the Nieman Lab put it “Who were all these people watching tons of video on Facebook when nobody we knew in real life, including ourselves, was actually watching video on Facebook?”
This hurt everyone except Facebook.
Eventually Facebook changed the way payments were made, shifting from ad revenue sharing to a performance-based payment model based on views (presumably now accurately counted).
Facebook is trying to keep up. Last month they announced that all uploaded videos are Reels, and can be watched in the new Reels feed. But it's not clear that will attract the viewers who are spending the time on TikTok and YouTube will start watching on Facebook instead.
So Facebook is still trying to figure out video. And they have not conquered YouTube.
Ten years ago this week Facebook launched a Suggested Video feed, sharing ad
revenue with video publishers and highlighting professional videos from news
media and other sources. Facebook's new video features and encouraging view
metrics convinced newsrooms to "pivot to video". In retrospect that was a
poor decision.
Re/Code headline July 1, 2015
In July 2015
Facebook launched a mobile Suggested Videos feed,
full of professionally produced content and interspersed with ads. Creators
whose videos were in the feed near an ad shared the ad revenue with
Facebook.
Here's how it worked: If someone watched a video in their News Feed in the Facebook mobile app, they would then be directed to more videos in the Suggested Videos feed.
Facebook Ad Revenue Sharing with Video Creators
Re/Code headline July 1, 2015
Here's how it worked: If someone watched a video in their News Feed in the Facebook mobile app, they would then be directed to more videos in the Suggested Videos feed.
At the time, 75% of video views were from the mobile app, making that the
obvious selection
The Suggested Videos feed had professionally produced videos. The initial
line up was from a few dozen sources including the NBA, Hearst (a huge news
media company), Fox Sports, Funny or Die and Tastemade.
Ads ran between the videos. Facebook kept 45% and creators 55%. That 55% revenue share would be divided between the videos adjacent to the ad.
Ads ran between the videos. Facebook kept 45% and creators 55%. That 55% revenue share would be divided between the videos adjacent to the ad.
Dan Rose, Facebook's VP of Partnerships,
said at the time, "A lot of [our partners] have said this will be a big motivation to start
publishing a lot more video content to Facebook. That’s exactly what we’re
hoping for.”
The Wall Street Journal noted,“If successful, the effort will make Facebook a more serious threat to
Google Inc.’s YouTube in online video”.
A few months later, Facebook said they were “pleased with initial results, which show that people who have suggested videos are discovering and watching more new videos”.
A few months later, Facebook said they were “pleased with initial results, which show that people who have suggested videos are discovering and watching more new videos”.
Facebook also added a number of other new video features in 2015, including
embedding videos on external websites, a
floating video player,
360-degree video,
and a dedicated Videos tab in the mobile app for video discovery.
The Pivot to Video
Nieman Lab headline, October 12, 2018
In 2015 media companies went all in on video on third party platforms like
Facebook. They hired video producers and laid off their writers and
journalists. This was the infamous "pivot to video" period.
That was supported by their ad revenue share, and the high number of views
suggested video was what people wanted to consume.
And then it fell apart. The metrics Facebook gave creators, media companies and advertisers at the time were grossly inflated.
In 2016 Facebook announced that there were errors in the video view metrics that had started in 2015, and maybe earlier. And it turned out that even that acknowledgement wasn’t entirely correct, and the numbers were even more inflated than Facebook had acknowledged.
As Laura Hazard Owen at the Nieman Lab put it “Who were all these people watching tons of video on Facebook when nobody we knew in real life, including ourselves, was actually watching video on Facebook?”
This hurt everyone except Facebook.
Eventually Facebook changed the way payments were made, shifting from ad revenue sharing to a performance-based payment model based on views (presumably now accurately counted).
Many of those media companies didn't survive.
But are people now watching video on Facebook?
But are people now watching video on Facebook?
Since 2015, viewers have really shifted even more towards mobile. TikTok
entered the picture. There are Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts competing
with that. But that leaves Facebook out.
Facebook is trying to keep up. Last month they announced that all uploaded videos are Reels, and can be watched in the new Reels feed. But it's not clear that will attract the viewers who are spending the time on TikTok and YouTube will start watching on Facebook instead.
So Facebook is still trying to figure out video. And they have not conquered YouTube.
References
Deepa Seetharaman and Jack Marshall, Wall Street Journal, 1 July 2015:
Facebook to Share Ad Revenue With Video Creators
Kurt Wagner, Re/Code, 1 July 2015: YouTube Beware: Facebook Will Start Sharing Ad Revenue With Video
Creators
Todd Spangler, Variety, 1 July 2015:
Facebook Unveils First Way for Video Partners to Earn Ad Revenue
Facebook Newsroom, 10 October 2015:
Testing new video experiences (Internet Archive)
Facebook Newsroom, 16 November 2016:
An update on metrics and reporting
Will Oremus, Slate, 18 October 2018:
The big lie behind the "Pivot to video"
Laura Hazard Owen, Nieman Lab, 17 October 2018:
Did Facebook’s faulty data push news publishers to make terrible decisions
on video?
Wikipedia,
Pivot to Video (yes, there is an entire article about it)
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