Facebook is sharing some new growth numbers around its video destination, namely that Facebook Watch now receives more than 1.25 billion visitors every month.
The company isn't specifically saying how these numbers changed during the pandemic (when video services like Netflix saw dramatic growth), but product manager Paresh Rajwat said there was "a really big surge" all over. beginning of the blockade and social distancing, and that the surge did not stop with the reopening of the company.
Facebook Watch was launched in 2018. In June last year, the company claimed that 720 million people were watching at least one minute of Watch content every month.
Rajwat noted that while Watch is built on the "social level of Facebook", with videos shareable across Facebook's many products, the views happen on Watch itself.
"It's extremely important to us to have a destination," he said, keeping videos from famous authors and publishers separate from the basic Facebook experience of interacting with friends and family. "The moment we mix them together, it becomes a completely different product for people."
Rajwat added that the company doesn't just look at the overall audience size. He stated that when you look at "reactions, comments and shares" you can see that "the content we have works". (Advertisers questioned the true extent of audience engagement on Facebook Watch.)
Last year, as tech and media companies were all investing heavily to launch their own streaming services, we argued that Facebook's efforts with unwritten shows and older content looked rather lackluster in comparison. But it appears that the content that Watch works on is not the kind of thing found on Netflix or Disney + - as Rajwat said, "The point of view we have chosen is to focus more on content that relates to social topics to stimulate. conversations. "
For example, there is Jada Pinkett Smith and her family's "Red Table Talk," a talk show that made headlines over the summer for bringing Will Smith and Jada together to discuss their marital issues. Facebook plans to launch another version of the Red Table Speech in October, "Speech at the Red Table: The Estefans," featuring Gloria Estefan, her niece Lily and her daughter Emily.
As another example of a successful Facebook Watch original show, Rajwat pointed to "Returning the Favor," an Emmy-winning program where presenter Mike Rowe shows off everyday heroes.
Rajwat said live programming increased significantly during the pandemic. This includes live sport, with 13.7 million people watching the UEFA Champions League final, making it the most popular football broadcast ever on Facebook Watch. And Facebook recently announced that publishers and other companies will be able to charge for access to live online events, with Facebook taking no fees for the coming year.
The site also added licensed music videos over the summer, with Katy Perry previewing her music video for "Smile" exclusively on Facebook Watch, where it was seen by "millions" of fans.
The company highlighted successful publishers on Facebook Watch include organizations like UFC, big publishers like BuzzFeed, and individual creators like Benito Skinner and Brandi Guice, aka Braannxo, who is earning 98% of its revenue from Facebook Stars and fan signups.
Looking ahead, Rajat said a big priority is to make "more and more investments in showing people what they really care about." To that end, users have already noticed that Facebook Watch now allows users to customize their feed by browsing and subscribing to different topics.