Facebook to start sharing ad revenue with video creators

[HEXUS]

And the social network company changed its logo yesterday, did you notice?

Read more.

[azrael-]

"...a huge change," which was "driven by mobile".

I just had another facepalm moment.

[aidanjt]

Are they going to put some of that ad money into making their video encoding not suck the chrome off a trailer hitch?

[jag272]

"Video views have multiplied on the platform; from one billion to four billion views per day leading up to April this year"
Isn't that because they started to make them autoplay, prompting me to install flashblock because I can't visit Facebook without having random sounds start playing from somewhere down the news feed.

Sharing revenue is nice however, though I can't really comment on it too much as I don't really use Facebook, not really the target demographic and certainly don't spend time watching videos on it, but I can't stand the autoplay feature even though its beneficial for my work that autoplay exists.

That said, if flashblock behaves the same as adblock I guess Facebook would know whether the video was actually played or not, in which case the number is much more impressive, and beneficial for my work.

[Saracen]

Like jag (^^^), I'm not the target demographic, either.

Cards on table .... about the closest I get to social media is HEXUS. I'm also not a fan of the vast majority of video content, especially on social media, because it seems to me that the vast bulk is peurile drivel in which my interest level is well below zero.

HOWEVER .... there are the odd amusing gem, and there is a proportion of constructive and useful how-to type stuff. Of the latter, most is decent, some is dire, and some truly useful and interesting to me.

And it's those final two words that determine my interest, or lack thereof, in social media. It's not presuming that because I think most content is peurile drivel, everybody else will too.

Currently, I'm not a heavy YouTube user. I might watch 10 video items in one session, and not another one for weeks, or months. I'm not a FB user at all, and somehow I don't see that changing. If even that video content that does interest me migrates to FB, I'm far more likely to go without than migrate with it.

What worried me a bit was this comment from the recode link ...

...

It’s possible, then, that Facebook might prioritize video advertising over other ad units down the road. Video ads are more expensive, which means more revenue for Facebook, and if that’s what people are watching anyway, then what’s to hold them back? ....

It misses the point that maybe people watch video because it's not (yet) jammed full of adverts.

Companies need to be extremely careful how they seek to monetise consumer-driven trends, or they risk killing the golden goose they're seeking to exploit.

Deriving revenue, carefully is fine. Overdoing it breeds an adverse reaction. I no longer EVER watch TV ads, precisely because they got too obnoxious. Now, I either record and pre-edit to remove ads, or just hit skip, because very rarely do I watch TV live (except, sometimes, BBC) so if I watch a program starting at 9PM, I record (or use live pause) and give it 20 minutes, start watching at 9:20 and skip the ads.

It's a bit like overdosing on some foodstuff to the point that even the smell makes you feel sick. Advertisers so overloaded me I now avoid any and all TV ads on principle.

[jag272]

It misses the point that maybe people watch video because it's not (yet) jammed full of adverts.

Companies need to be extremely careful how they seek to monetise consumer-driven trends, or they risk killing the golden goose they're seeking to exploit.

Deriving revenue, carefully is fine. Overdoing it breeds an adverse reaction. I no longer EVER watch TV ads, precisely because they got too obnoxious. Now, I either record and pre-edit to remove ads, or just hit skip, because very rarely do I watch TV live (except, sometimes, BBC) so if I watch a program starting at 9PM, I record (or use live pause) and give it 20 minutes, start watching at 9:20 and skip the ads.

Completely agree with this, the whole reason I installed Flashblock was that I got sick of the current trend towards autoplaying flash adverts that Adblock doesnt catch, hell thats the reason I even installed Adblock, I don't care so much for banner adverts though like anyone I'd prefer they weren't there.

I honestly can't think of anything more disruptive than video adverts, youtube gets away with it because you're going there to watch video anyway, if i'm reading an article on a news site (some of them do use video ads) or in the highly unlikely event I find some actual useful info on Facebook (I use Facebook for work and thats about it now) the last thing I want is autoplaying videos making all manner of noises while I'm trying to read and having to hunt the advert down.

While I understand the appeal of video, Facebook (and other companies certainly) need to realise there is a time and place for video. Certainly on written news sites I find it completely inappropriate, prerolling an ad on a news video EG on Hexus videos, while I still wouldn't like it, I would find to be a much more reasonable use of video ads as its not actively harassing you while you try to read.

I guess Facebook is in that odd middle ground, some people use it to have proper discussions, some people use it to watch the latest kitten videos or animals do the silliest things etc. The latter are the target demographic of the autoplaying and the video adverts, but on a platform the size of Facebook I'm not sure they can really afford to be overly specific about their demographic.

[Normanyakuza]

That lightsaber cat xD