Facebook has long been reported to have plans to host third-party content on its site. It looks like the program might begin soon as a few publications are already in discussions with the social networker according to The New York Times.
Financial terms still undecided
The report claims that the talks between Facebook and The New York Times, BuzzFeed, National Geographic and few more publishers have been going on for the past few months. Within the next few months, the new format will be put to test by Facebook, reported Times.
Publishers are being offered an option of taking a cut from the advertising shown alongside the content, claims the report. Offering details on the revenue sharing model, the new plan would remove the ads that publishers generally place around their content. Instead, the social networker will allow the publishers to have a single ad in a customized format for each article. The report also notes that nothing has been finalized yet as the “revenue-sharing ideas are still in flux.”
The news sites benefit greatly from the traffic diverted to them by Facebook. An integration with the social networker could provide an enormous amount of ad money and a vast reach. Therefore, it is beneficial for companies like Buzzfeed to sacrifice traffic and valuable reader information for the gains offered.
Facebook focusing on enriching user experience
Facebook has long claimed that such a move will improve the news experience for users. However, some experts doubt the motive, arguing that such a move may be less beneficial for the publishers.
Apart from posting the content directly on the platform, the social networker is also discussing more technical ways to speed-up the delivery of the articles, says the report. Experts believe that even slight increases in speed could enhance the user satisfaction and traffic. This is the primary reason why Facebook is focusing on such small issues instead of focusing more on important issues such as how to get more revenues.
The report highlights the fact that Facebook has a great deal of power regarding the content displayed on user pages, which may not be ideal for users, but is not likely to change.
