Facebook Launches Video Service

 

Facebook has launched their video streaming platform ‘Facebook Watch’. The video service was launched in the US last year but it is now finally being rolled out globally.

The social media giant announced that the video streaming service is “available everywhere” and will give “people around the world a new way to discover great videos and interact with friends, creators and other fans”.

The YouTube alternative appears to have been quite successful in the US over the last year with over 50 million people in the US watching videos via Facebook Watch every minute.

Certain shows have also found great success on the video platform such as Red Table Talk with Jada Pinkett Smith, as well as PGA Tour and Major League Baseball sports coverage.

The service will roll out to the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand now and another 21 countries next month including France, Germany and Spain.

Facebook seems to be keen on the success of Watch and has said they will be spending $2 billion on new content for the platform, which is nothing compared to YouTube and Netflix but still a significant investment.

The platform still isn’t widely known in the US with half of US Facebook users saying they had never heard of Watch and it will likely take some time to take off in the UK too.

However, Facebook Watch has called itself a “new platform for shows” and seems to be more focused on established media makers so it will be interesting to see what content they offer…