It wasn’t too long ago that Facebook videos started blasting out autoplay ads. Now it seems Facebook wants to take that ridiculously annoying reality and crowbar it into your personal conversations on Messenger too. Messenger is the third most popular messaging service in the U.S., so it represents a massive potential future revenue stream for Facebook.
Although Messenger is a much cleaner experience than Facebook, users’ private messages have seen ads for over a year. Now, according to a report by Recode, autoplay videos have started popping up in people’s private conversations. Seemingly, they started rolling out on Monday.
Recode reports, Facebook is aware of the new ads and is actively monitoring user response. There is a good chance that autoplay videos could be seen as too annoying if you’re simply trying to have a conversation with a friend or loved one; obnoxious even. At the Cannes Lions advertising festival Stefanos Loukakos, manage or Messenger’s ad business said:
“…we don’t know yet [if these will work]. However, signs until now, when we tested basic ads, didn’t show any changes with how people used the platform or how many messages they send… Video might be a bit different, but we don’t believe so.”
Gizmodo smartly pointed out that the Cambridge Analytica scandal is limiting Facebook’s ability to move into new spheres of influence. In particular, the massive data leak has dented public trust meaning we likely won’t be seeing an all-hearing Facebook smart speaker any time soon. This means that if Facebook is to keep growing it needs to find more places in its current products for ads.
Facebook continues to monetize Instagram, and the launch of IGTV offers a new revenue stream for the photo, and now video, sharing social network. Messenger now has autoplay video ads, but WhatsApp is yet to make any real money for Facebook.
Does this mean we could start seeing video ads in out private conversations on WhatsApp too? Only time will tell.
How do you feel about autoplay videos popping up in your private conversations on Messenger?
