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When Facebook introduced the News Feed in 2006, it was unlike anything the digitally connected world had seen.
It was also hated by a huge percentage of users when it launched, bringing privacy concerns to the company’s doorstep for the first time.
But, as Facebook’s internal metrics and data showed, the addition of the News Feed kept people using it for longer. Even those who hated it were using the site more because of it.
For Zuckerberg, there was no going back, and it has since cemented itself as part of our digital social fabric.
News Feed was one of the first features that marked the shift towards Zuck’s dream of ‘connecting the world at scale.’ It moved away from being a social media company — i.e., the goal of close connections with friends and family — to focus on becoming a platform company.
The shift changed everything and has impacted society more than we understand at this moment. Now, it was less about keeping you engaged with your friends and more about keeping people engaged with the Facebook platform itself. It was no longer a place to check into once in a while — it was the hub of your entire social life. The result meant features like games and quizzes flooded the feed, interlaced with content from external media companies. Gone were the pokes (yup, still yucky), replaced with clicks, likes, and time spent engaged. Continuing down this path, Zuck even wanted Facebook to become a person’s home for news. Since 2019, Facebook has paid news organizations $10+ million a year for content without paywalls.
Unfortunately, this vision warped into a nightmare. As the algorithms improved and better understood how to drive engagement (answer: make people angry, upset, or scared), the stories and updates on the feed flipped to promote content that drove hate, division and fake news. Now, people were telling you they didn’t believe the “mainstream media,” instead choosing Facebook as their news source. As we saw on January 6th, this strategy came to a terrifying crescendo.
In sum, the News Feed was innovative, and it was a great feature. Until it wasn’t. It has grown into a monster, and the source of most of the company’s problems.
Thanks to TikTok (and a little bit of thanks to Snap), the content model that’s working right now is short video. And with Facebook’s growth stalling (its daily active users declined for the first time ever last year) and TikTok’s growth going to the moon, change was needed. In response — and desperation to stay relevant — Meta will continue to follow its policy of “if you can’t beat it, buy it, if you can’t buy it, copy it.”
It’s killing off the News Feed.
The News Feed will now become the “Home tab.” This tab will focus on.. drum roll.. short-form algorithmically recommended video content from creators on the platform. How very innovative. The old, boring, dinosaur stuff, like what your friends and family are up to, has been relegated to the ‘feed’ tab. Meta recently told employees that Facebook News and Bulletin — remember its Substack copy, which has clearly been a whirlwind success — would have its resources pulled back and given to new video-focused creator products.
M.G. Siegler
summarises that particular product launch perfectly:
“Publishers: when Facebook approaches you to sign on to a new service they’re launching to “help” you, do not sign up. At best, it will be a huge waste of time. At worst, it will actually damage your business.”
It should also be noted that Facebook has tried to pivot to video before, a saga which involved the company allegedly misleading advertisers as to how many people were watching videos its platform. Par for the course really. It was a disaster for all involved.
So will this pivot work?
Doubtful.
TikTok is so far ahead in the short-form game, and its algorithms are second-to-none in terms of recommending videos a user wants to watch. (Full disclosure: I’ve never used it. But that’s what the internet says.)
Meta/Facebook have seen time and time again that their copies always come up short, even when they are literally identical. Just look at Instagram, which is already rapidly becoming a direct clone, adding more and more of TikTok’s features to its Reels function. But it’s not turning the tide. In April 2022, TikTok became the most downloaded app of Q1, ahead of Instagram. Why? Because Instagram still comes from a company whose reputation is in the gutter. And that reputation is sticking like shit to a blanket.
Despite the big rebrand to Meta in late 2021 — essentially an admittance that the company doesn’t want to be associated with or dependant on Facebook, the very platform that got Zuckerberg where he is today — the company still needs Facebook.
Its Metaverse vision is years away (an optimistic estimate), and to buy time and provide the funding to build it, Facebook, alongside Instagram, needs to make money and keep the stock price afloat.
Even though that stock price has dropped significantly from its all-time high, and Apple’s data tracking update hit the company hard, Facebook still generated $117.9 billion in revenue in 2021. That income means that until Zuck’s Metaverse dream becomes a reality, the company is desperately trying to plug the increasing number of holes in its leaking core social media platform.
And by plug, I mean look over their competitor’s shoulders and copy their work.
If you want to read more of my business and tech takes, consider becoming a member. Your membership fee directly supports the writers you read. I’ll earn a small commission if you sign up using my link.
You can also follow me on Twitter.
Appreciate you.
When Facebook introduced the News Feed in 2006, it was unlike anything the digitally connected world had seen.
It was also hated by a huge percentage of users when it launched, bringing privacy concerns to the company’s doorstep for the first time.
But, as Facebook’s internal metrics and data showed, the addition of the News Feed kept people using it for longer. Even those who hated it were using the site more because of it.
For Zuckerberg, there was no going back, and it has since cemented itself as part of our digital social fabric.
News Feed was one of the first features that marked the shift towards Zuck’s dream of ‘connecting the world at scale.’ It moved away from being a social media company — i.e., the goal of close connections with friends and family — to focus on becoming a platform company.
The shift changed everything and has impacted society more than we understand at this moment. Now, it was less about keeping you engaged with your friends and more about keeping people engaged with the Facebook platform itself. It was no longer a place to check into once in a while — it was the hub of your entire social life. The result meant features like games and quizzes flooded the feed, interlaced with content from external media companies. Gone were the pokes (yup, still yucky), replaced with clicks, likes, and time spent engaged. Continuing down this path, Zuck even wanted Facebook to become a person’s home for news. Since 2019, Facebook has paid news organizations $10+ million a year for content without paywalls.
Unfortunately, this vision warped into a nightmare. As the algorithms improved and better understood how to drive engagement (answer: make people angry, upset, or scared), the stories and updates on the feed flipped to promote content that drove hate, division and fake news. Now, people were telling you they didn’t believe the “mainstream media,” instead choosing Facebook as their news source. As we saw on January 6th, this strategy came to a terrifying crescendo.
In sum, the News Feed was innovative, and it was a great feature. Until it wasn’t. It has grown into a monster, and the source of most of the company’s problems.
“If you can’t beat it, copy it”
Now, in 2022, Zuck faces a conundrum. The social media landscape has altered. The public has wisened to what Facebook, and other platforms, have been doing for the last 5–10 years. These days, news is out. Connections with friends? Probably out. Wasting time playing games that steal your friend’s data? Definitely out. But short-form video content? All in.Thanks to TikTok (and a little bit of thanks to Snap), the content model that’s working right now is short video. And with Facebook’s growth stalling (its daily active users declined for the first time ever last year) and TikTok’s growth going to the moon, change was needed. In response — and desperation to stay relevant — Meta will continue to follow its policy of “if you can’t beat it, buy it, if you can’t buy it, copy it.”
It’s killing off the News Feed.
The News Feed will now become the “Home tab.” This tab will focus on.. drum roll.. short-form algorithmically recommended video content from creators on the platform. How very innovative. The old, boring, dinosaur stuff, like what your friends and family are up to, has been relegated to the ‘feed’ tab. Meta recently told employees that Facebook News and Bulletin — remember its Substack copy, which has clearly been a whirlwind success — would have its resources pulled back and given to new video-focused creator products.
M.G. Siegler
summarises that particular product launch perfectly:
“Publishers: when Facebook approaches you to sign on to a new service they’re launching to “help” you, do not sign up. At best, it will be a huge waste of time. At worst, it will actually damage your business.”
It should also be noted that Facebook has tried to pivot to video before, a saga which involved the company allegedly misleading advertisers as to how many people were watching videos its platform. Par for the course really. It was a disaster for all involved.
So will this pivot work?
Doubtful.
TikTok is so far ahead in the short-form game, and its algorithms are second-to-none in terms of recommending videos a user wants to watch. (Full disclosure: I’ve never used it. But that’s what the internet says.)
Meta/Facebook have seen time and time again that their copies always come up short, even when they are literally identical. Just look at Instagram, which is already rapidly becoming a direct clone, adding more and more of TikTok’s features to its Reels function. But it’s not turning the tide. In April 2022, TikTok became the most downloaded app of Q1, ahead of Instagram. Why? Because Instagram still comes from a company whose reputation is in the gutter. And that reputation is sticking like shit to a blanket.
Despite the big rebrand to Meta in late 2021 — essentially an admittance that the company doesn’t want to be associated with or dependant on Facebook, the very platform that got Zuckerberg where he is today — the company still needs Facebook.
Its Metaverse vision is years away (an optimistic estimate), and to buy time and provide the funding to build it, Facebook, alongside Instagram, needs to make money and keep the stock price afloat.
Even though that stock price has dropped significantly from its all-time high, and Apple’s data tracking update hit the company hard, Facebook still generated $117.9 billion in revenue in 2021. That income means that until Zuck’s Metaverse dream becomes a reality, the company is desperately trying to plug the increasing number of holes in its leaking core social media platform.
And by plug, I mean look over their competitor’s shoulders and copy their work.
If you want to read more of my business and tech takes, consider becoming a member. Your membership fee directly supports the writers you read. I’ll earn a small commission if you sign up using my link.
You can also follow me on Twitter.
Appreciate you.
