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Facebook has started testing the ephemeral Stories format in its main mobile app, Business Insider reports.
The test has rolled out in Ireland initially, and the company plans to bring it to more countries in the coming months.
Facebook Stories is based on the format of the same name originated by Snapchat. Users can add photos and videos, complete with selfie- and geo-filters, to a story that friends can tap through, while new posts disappear after 24 hours. Stories appear near the top of the interface, below the search function and above the status update box. Users can also reply to a story with a direct message.
The new feature aims to tap into the growing trend of visual social sharing. Facebook acknowledged in a statement that people are sharing more photos and videos than ever before – insinuating a shift away from text-based sharing – and that it wants to make it as easy as possible for users to do this in the app. More than this, Facebook Stories is part of a broader strategy by the company to emphasize its video and camera experiences, as company CEO Mark Zuckerberg touched upon in Q3 2016:
- Becoming video-first is Facebook’s primary near-term priority. Video was Facebook’s biggest theme of Q3 2016 and is the biggest product priority for Facebook and Instagram, and increasingly important WhatsApp and Messenger too.
- Facebook is also focused on enhancing its camera experience. The company wants to enhance both the consumption and production/sharing side of the camera, with new camera-centered interfaces and photo-sharing features in its apps.
Meanwhile, Facebook Stories will hope to curb Snapchat’s momentum. This could be particularly effective in keeping older age groups, who may not have migrated to Snapchat, loyal to Facebook’s app. It could also cut short Snapchat’s global growth efforts. Facebook is widely used around the world and is in certain countries where Snapchat doesn’t have a strong presence yet. People would be discouraged from using Snapchat in these countries if Facebook can bring the Stories feature to market first.
Introducing the new Stories feature also unlocks revenue opportunities. It opens the door for ad products to be worked into the Stories format in the future, a tactic that Facebook has already found success with on Instagram. Instagram Stories began monetizing earlier this month, with 5-second photo and 15-second video ads between stories, after growing engagement for the feature to more than 150 million daily active users. This opportunity will be welcome by Facebook, which has stressed that it’s starting to run out of ad space.
BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on mobile video that takes a look at how short-form mobile video has exploded. The report examines how YouTube, the historically dominant force in short-form video, was slow to implement a mobile video strategy, opening the door for new players —namely Facebook and Snapchat — to emerge.
It also takes a look at how winners will begin to emerge in distinct video content categories. YouTube, for instance, will rely heavily on its homegrown YouTube stars to distinguish its video library and drive loyalty. Facebook will become the go-to place for brands and media companies to engage with the largest audience. And Snapchat will utilize its live-events coverage and exclusive content to promote video communication among younger mobile audiences.
Here are some key takeaways from the report:
- The rise in mobile video viewing can be attributed to several factors: an increase in overall time spent on mobile, the convenience of on-demand viewing, a preference for digital video viewing, and the increased availability of mobile video content.
- As video becomes mobile-first, YouTube's hold on the short-form video industry is waning. The number of videos that are uploaded to the platform per month has remained stagnant over the past year, according to Socialbakers data shared with BI Intelligence.
- Facebook is in the best position to upset YouTube as the go-to place for brand and media companies to upload videos and for users to watch these videos. Although Snapchat may not be competing with Facebook and YouTube on video volume, the app is changing how consumers, brands, and publishers are using mobile video for communication, news and entertainment, and live-event coverage.
In full, the report:
- Maps out the rise of mobile video viewing and lays out the main drivers of this trend.
- Examines why YouTube's hold on the short-form video industry is waning as viewers migrate to mobile viewing.
- Illustrates the dramatic increase in the number of videos that brands and media companies are publishing to Facebook over the past year.
- Forecasts the number of videos that US brands and media companies will publish to both Facebook and YouTube in 2016.
- Explains how Snapchat is able to compete with larger video platforms and is changing how brands, media companies, and consumers are using mobile video.
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