Facebook News: A Feature To Be Introduced In India By The Social Media Giant
Facebook said on Tuesday it plans to launch its news service in India, Brazil, France, Germany, and the UK in the coming months, after their successful introduction of the feature in the United States last year. Facebook News is expected to launch in multiple countries within the next year. The social media giant also assured that they would be paying publishers in each country it launches the service to “ensure their content is available in the new product.” A report also suggested that Facebook may not be the launching the service in Australia.
By Pallabi Ghatak
Facebook news (and a tab within Facebook) is a new product launched on a social platform which aims to help news media for driving better monetization. According to this social media behemoth, Facebook News is a 'personalized destination' which is said to be built with insights from publishers and people. It promises to offer fully customized viewing options on Facebook and the users can control what category of news they like to see on the Facebook feed page. Based on the behavior of different users, it will recommend top headlines of the trending stories on that particular day. It helps them to discover new topics and stories based on their specific reading, sharing, and following patterns.
Campbell Brown, VP, Global News Partnerships at Facebook, in a blog said,
"We'll work closely with news partners in each country to tailor the experience and test ways to deliver a valuable experience of people while also honoring publishers' business models."
The UNITED STATES is currently getting paid for content by the Social Media Giant's and has originally reported from more than 200 outlets which includes thousands of local news organizations. Facebook will continue to
"focus on the growing engagement of Facebook News in the US."
According to the reporters, the company will remain committed to the partnerships it has developed with American publishers in order to make Facebook News a 'valuable asset' over the long term. The service is only available on Android and iOS devices in the US presently.
Facebook currently has over 2.7 billion active users and it commands perhaps the largest reach for any social network and has increasingly come under the accusations for spreading misinformation and fake news among its readers, and also for stifling competition. In this battle of criticism, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said the company would prioritize "trustworthy" news in its feed by identifying high-quality outlets.
On the business side, the company claims that Facebook News delivers to publishers is incremental to the traffic they already get from the News Feed To read more such articles, click here
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However, Campbell Brown says, "Innovation is critical for building a sustainable news ecosystem. We keep building new products and making global investments to help the news industry build long-lasting business models." Facebook has collaborated with Jio Platforms, for one of the biggest deals and that has set the market dither while it is undergoing an interesting phase in India.
Facebook is under scrutiny in India with allegations that it sided with the ruling party politics on its platform with regard to some polarizing content.
Ajit Mohan Vice President and Managing Director, Facebook India, has been quoted saying that Facebook has always been an open, transparent, and non-partisan platform where people can express themselves freely.
"Over the last few days, we have been accused of bias in the way we enforce our policies. We take the allegations of bias incredibly seriously, and want to make it clear that we denounce hate and bigotry in any form," Mohan said.
However it is interesting to know that one day before, Google announced a news-content licensing program to "pay publishers for high-quality content for a new news experience launching later this year."
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