Platform Pulse: Facebook gains upper hand in mobile news delivery
Last week?s platform news highlights how, in the ongoing struggle to monetize media offerings for mobile users, technology companies such as Facebook have the upper hand over traditional media.
Facebook?s introduction of Instant Articles and news of cross-platform live-streaming application Strimz are prime examples of where content consumption is headed in the mobile era. Even the not-old technology companies such as Bing and Yelp are struggling to keep, with the former playing catch up to Google by introducing its own mobile-friendly requirements while the latter looks for a suitor as growth slows.
?Facebook?s launch of Instant Articles is certainly good news for marketers,? said Shuli Lowy, marketing director of mobile at Ping Mobile. ?The move demonstrates that Facebook is acknowledging that users are consuming a lot of news through its social platform and that it is dedicated to optimizing the user experience accordingly.
?Most users abandon a page if it doesn?t load in a few seconds,? she said. ?A better user experience, particularly a faster load time, means that Facebook will be able to retain and better monetize that traffic.?
Here are the biggest platform developments from the past week for mobile marketers:
Instant Articles on Facebook
Facebook introduced Instant Articles, promising faster load times for news stories and interactive features such as maps, image zoom, autoplay videos and audio captions. Partners include The New York Times, National Geographic, BuzzFeed, NBC and The Atlantic.
Bing?s mobile-friendly algorithm
Similar to recent moves by Google, Bing is adding a mobile-friendly tag to sites found through its search engine in an attempt to encourage marketers to offer mobile-friendly Web sites. The search engine will also start using a new search algorithm that will rank mobile site more highly in results based on several factors. The move promises to hurt the mobile search performance of marketers who do not have mobile-friendly sites.
Yelp seeks help
Yelp is reportedly exploring a possible sale of the company and has hired banks to shop around for possible suitors. The move comes as the company faces growing competition and challenges posting strong growth with users and advertisers.
Cross-platform live streaming
Strimz is a new app that has joined Facebook?s FBstart program. It enables users to broadcast HD video in real-time on any social network, including Facebook, Twitter or a user?s own blog. Given the significant interest in live streaming apps Meerkat and Periscope since their launch earlier this year, Strimz and its more user-friendly approach is one to watch.
?The launch of Strimz is worth taking a wait and see approach,? Ms. Lowy said. ?While there certainly is value to live streaming across multiple social sites simultaneously, it is no simple task for a new app to achieve traction.
?Publishers who are have large amounts of consumers interfacing with their articles on Facebook should work with Facebook to create an Instant Article format,? she said. ?They should also work on technical integrations to be able to track traffic engaging with their content.
?Marketers who advertise on Facebook should also keep a look out for new ad formats. Facebook, which has worked hard to diversify its palette of ad formats may choose to incorporate new features should the site become a bigger player in the news sharing space.?
Final Take
Chantal Tode is senior editor on Mobile Marketer, New York