Facebook Messenger is rolling out its Snapchat stories clone, dubbed “Messenger Day,” globally, according to TechCrunch.
Messenger users can share ephemeral illustrated and filter-enhanced photos and videos with their friends — in the same way Snapchat users do. The app initially tested in Poland and Australia.
If successful, Messenger Day could help Facebook realize its recent efforts:
- It could encourage more visual communication. Messenger, and Facebook in general, is doubling down on its efforts to make the camera the center of the app. In January 2017, Messenger VP David Marcus projected that the camera would become an increasingly important part of the smartphone experience as technological advancements allow for higher-quality and more engaging interactions.
- Provide a revenue stream for Messenger. It’s likely that Messenger will begin showing ads in between posts on Messenger Day, according to Marcus. This has already been an effective strategy for Instagram and Snapchat.
- Stunt Snapchat’s global growth. Facebook’s efforts to imitate Snapchat are likely to ensure it maintains its dominant market position. Messenger’s more than 1 billion MAU mean that it has a strong presence in many markets that Snapchat is yet to broach or doesn’t have significant usage in.
The top four messaging apps — Facebook's Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, and Viber — now claim nearly 3 billion monthly active users combined, narrowly outnumbering the combined active users on the world's four largest social networks, including Facebook.
These numbers have caught the attention of a wide range of businesses, publishers among them. News industry leaders including the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and the BBC are establishing a presence on a number of chat apps in an effort to be out front and build an audience on the latest platforms where people are consuming content. These early adopters are experimenting to learn which chat apps work for their audience and how they can leverage chat for the distribution of digital content, including articles, images, surveys, and video.
BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on messaging apps for publishers that looks at the appeal of these apps and how they're becoming a dominant platform for media consumption. It compares the leading chat platforms, including WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook's Messenger, and Viber, and what features publishers should know about when thinking about how they might leverage these properties. It also looks at strategies for content distribution across chat apps and finally spotlights some of the challenges that publishers may encounter as they begin to dip their toes into content distribution via messaging apps.
Here are some of the key takeaways:
- There are dozens of messaging platforms, each with distinct user demographics and features, and these differences will determine which apps a publisher should try and what type of content is most fitting.
- Publishers like The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and the BBC are experimenting to learn which chat apps work for their audience and how they can leverage chat for the distribution of digital content, including articles, images, surveys, and video.
- Chat apps are especially appealing to publishers because they allow these brands to tap into users' "dark social" activity. Dark social traffic stems from people sharing content privately through IM programs, messaging apps, and email, among other means.
- Because chat apps were once primarily used for peer-to-peer communications, publishers have an opportunity to reach audiences on these platforms through a more conversational exchange.
In full, the report:
- Breaks down the pros and cons of each major messaging app.
- Explains the different ways publishers can distribute content on messaging apps.
- Highlights the differences between native and linked content.
- Looks at the potential barriers that could limit chat apps' utility for publishers.
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