Facebook Is Talking to Publishers About Hosting Their Content (Video)
Asa Mathat
Social
February 17, 2015, 7:53 PM PST
Facebook is making a pitch to media publishers: Let us host your content for you, and we’ll make it look beautiful (and give you more eyeballs) in the process.
That’s according to Chris Cox, Facebook’s chief product officer, who joined Re/code’s Peter Kafka onstage Tuesday at the Code/Media conference at The Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel, Calif.
Facebook is actually having these kinds of discussion with publishers, Cox says, to figure out a model that would enable Facebook to host content that would otherwise go on a publisher’s own website. Cox says one of the challenges for publishers — including Facebook — is that reading on mobile is still a crummy experience. He believes Facebook can make it better.
“Reading news on a smartphone is still a very bad experience most of the time,” he said, citing problems like speed and general design. “We want to try and make that a better experience for publishers.”
These partnerships aren’t coming anytime soon, and Cox also added that he doesn’t believe publisher websites will disappear in the process. Most publishers, when needed, can provide a better experience for their readers than anyone else on the Web. Facebook can simply help them reach a larger audience.
Cox also spoke to Facebook’s revamped video efforts, which include autoplay videos in the News Feed. Cox says that autoplay videos have been a “massive success,” despite the fact that some employees were concerned internally ahead of the product’s launch.
Facebook has been labeled by some as a YouTube competitor thanks to this success, but Cox wouldn’t go that far. He believes the two platforms can coexist. He described Facebook video as a “window” you peek into throughout the day; YouTube, on the other hand, is more of a library where you go to search for video content.
Nevertheless, Facebook wants people and brands creating video exclusively for Facebook. It’s not, however, willing to pay them for this — yet.
Other platforms, including YouTube and Twitter, have made efforts to reach out to video creators, and, in YouTube’s case, share revenue with them along the way.
Cox says Facebook isn’t rushing to do this. The company drives “awareness” to video creators and their content, but sending them money? He’s not sure how that would work, he added.
Cox spoke for more than 30 minutes at Code/Media, and you can get a recap by reading our liveblog of the conversation below.
I have a hunch Peter is going to ask Cox a lot about News Feed tonight. Specifically, why do you see some things (like your high school friend’s baby photos) but miss others (like your other high school friend’s baby photos). I would say this question is the one I hear most often from people who know I write about Facebook.
Cox and Kafka on stage now. Here we go!
Q: You started paying people in Knoxville a year ago to use Facebook. What the heck is with that?
(Cox is head of product at Facebook, FYI. This means, among other things, he runs News Feed, which is a major responsibility.)
Cox: These people are helping Facebook determine what content is most important for the News Feed. They’re looking at content and providing Facebook with feedback (much more feedback than a simple ‘Like’). Facebook is using that feedback to help tweak its News Feed algorithm, the software that determines what shows up in News Feed and what doesn’t.
This is all about creating what Mark Zuckerberg has called a “personalized digital newspaper” in the past. Your stream should be perfect for you. Mine should be perfect for me. Simple, right?
Q: Is it Facebook’s job to keep people up to speed on world happenings?
Cox: “Not directly, no.” Facebook’s job is to show people what’s important to them. If they care about world happenings – great! If they care about cat photos (which Peter and Cox both claim they don’t) – great! Facebook is personalized for you!
Cox: “People should get the content that matters to them the most.” Most often, that’s friends and family.
I feel like I just wrote the same thing about five times. So going to wait until we hear something other than how News Feed is personalized.
Cox: “People should get the content that matters to them the most.” Most often, that’s content from friends and family.
Peter now asking Cox about Facebook’s relationships with media publishers. Specifically, why did Facebook reach out to media partners at all?
Cox: People were sharing media from the time they could post to Facebook. People wanted to share this content, and publishers should get in on that!
Cox: For publishers, it’s all about connecting with the people on Facebook.
I would imagine here that we are missing a huge point of this whole relationship: Facebook drives traffic! And therefore, makes publishers money. So “connecting” with users is nice. But publishers see financial benefits to posting on Facebook, too.
Peter pointing out Facebook likes to tweak the dials on the News Feed algorithm — showing content people say they like but also sometimes showing them stuff they didn’t know they might like. Cox’s response: Our job is to connect people with the content they find valuable.
Cox: A good partnership with the media can make the publishing industry better, it can make Facebook better, and it can help people find great content.
This is the “perfect world” version of Facebook’s media situation, FYI.
Q: What’s important to you personally as a news consumer?
Cox: Music. Film. Tech news. Not all of it comes through Facebook, though. Still reads magazines. So there you go. Cox has a life outside News Feed.
Cox: “Reading news on a smartphone is still a very bad experience most of the time.”
“We want to try and make that a better experience for publishers.” Problems to solve: Speed. Physical appearance of article.
Cox acknowledges Facebook has been talking to publishers about the possibility of having Facebook host its content. Cites how reading on mobile isn’t good … fractured along many different phones, OSs and readers.
This mobile experience is big for Facebook. Cox says the company is trying to convince publishers that Facebook can provide a better mobile reading experience. The hope there is that more publishers share content to Facebook.
Keep in mind, most Facebook users come to the platform through mobile. So perfecting this consumption experience is a must.
Cox: Facebook isn’t going to kill off sites even if they publish content directly to Facebook. Nothing replaces that experience of going to their website directly.
Q: How far away are we from having a partnership like that, where Facebook is the content “container” instead of the website?
Cox: No timeline. Still early.
Kafka now asking about video, which is big for Facebook.
Cox on autoplay video: It’s been a “massive success,” but he adds that inside the company, people were skeptical ahead of launch. It has been surprising how successful it’s been, he says.
Q: Why doesn’t Facebook run pre-roll ads for autoplay videos? That’s standard for video.
Cox: Pre-roll doesn’t work well for autoplay. Video needs to suck you in right away. Ads won’t do that.
Q: You’ve been testing a post-roll ad with the NFL. You watch the clip, then watch an ad. Are people sticking around for that?
Cox: Some people are, absolutely. (A non-answer. What’s else is he going to say??)
Cox is now talking about YouTube versus Facebook. He describes Facebook as a “window” you peek into throughout the day. YouTube is more of a library where you go to search.
This whole Facebook/ YouTube competition should heat up over the next year or so. Cox won’t say Facebook is gong after YouTube, but it seems inevitable that they’ll be competing.
Cox says about artists, filmmakers: “They’ll have an interest in being on both platforms.”
So it sounds like Facebook thinks the two services can offer separate use cases, or audiences, or whatever. Facebook should be used in addition to whatever else they already use (like YouTube), he says.
“It’s a rad place to work.” — Cox on why he’s still at Facebook. And some other stuff about changing the world. You know, the usual.
Cox says he’s excited about virtual reality. Says Facebook is building apps for VR. (Not super surprising given the company owns Oculus, but still, I hadn’t heard this before.)
Q: How far away are we from virtual reality becoming part of Facebook’s day-to-day experience?
Cox: “Probably a while.” We’re also a long way away from everyone owning VR headsets and gear that will make VR a reality.
Kafka asking Cox how the company feels about free speech. Does it feel responsible for upholding that? Does it need to protect users?
Cox: Facebook is about free expression, but it needs to be safe. Hate speech, bullying, threats — we take that stuff down. It has to be a safe place.
For future reading: Re/code spoke with Facebook’s head safety officer back in the fall. Some more background on the company’s stance in here.
Kafka is now turning to the audience for Qs.
Question from the audience is about where photographs fit in — you haven’t mentioned those yet, dude!
Cox basically says photos are important and have been around since the beginning. Not much else to say.
Q from the audience: YouTube, Twitter are creating relationships with “power users.” Does Facebook want to do this?
Cox: Yes, we are driving awareness to these people and their content for now. Not sure if people will ever make money in the way they do when they partner with YouTube. Still unsure how these relationships would work.
Q from audience: How do you measure sentiment from posts? This guy is a Seahawks fan and mentions the 49ers a lot in a derogatory way, but still gets Niner ads. What gives?? Can’t Facebook tell he dislikes them?
Cox: This tech isn’t that great right now. Facebook is working on it. The best way to avoid these ads: Hide them from News Feed.
(For background, Facebook has always had this stance: Engage with the content you like and hide the stuff you don’t. That is the greatest signal you can send Facebook about your News Feed content.)
Q from audience: How do you plan to host lots of video like YouTube does? Any technical issues so far?
Cox: We are building the infrastructure, etc. Facebook is building tools to try and ensure video is served properly even when you watch on some old Android device most of us forgot ever existed.
Some more background: Facebook bought a startup in January to help handle this very challenge. Didn’t hear Cox mention that, though.
Q from audience: what about people who upload content that doesn’t belong to them?
Cox: This problem is getting bigger now that video is blowing up. Trying to crack down on it more now. Admits this behavior is bad and frustrating for users. FB needs to fix it.
A lot more audience questions for Cox than there have been for other speakers so far. Lots of people have personal experiences with the product. And this is the man to ask about (or complain to about) those experiences.
And, of course, as I type that, we wrap things up.
We learned a few things from Cox tonight: Facebook’s working on some VR apps, chatting with media publishers. Oh right, and that Facebook wants you to have the best News Feed possible! (Although I feel like I’ve heard that before …)
Thanks for joining and come back to Re/code on Wednesday for more liveblogs and stories from Code/Media! Or just come down to Laguna Niguel. Did I mention it’s beautiful down here?
Hello from beautiful Laguna Niguel! We’re getting ready for Chris Cox to speak here at Code/Media with our very own Peter Kafka. I’ve been looking forward to this one for a few weeks!