Facebook wants to take on YouTube by the horns by pumping in a whopping $1 billion over the next year on original video content. According to various industry experts, Facebook aspires to dominate the video segment and become a one-stop shop for movies, series, and other video content.
The goal over the long term is to find new ways of expanding its revenue stream as Facebook expects a letdown in its business in the future. However, it largely remains unclear whether Facebook intends to resort to an ad-sharing model or subscription business model as a method to cash in on original video content.
This is not the first time, though, that Facebook has manifested its interest in advancing the company’s effort to conquer the video content category. This June, it was reported that the social networking site was willing to invest as much as $3 million in each episode of original video meant for distribution through Facebook’s platform.
Facebook also reportedly wanted to be in the process of evaluating original series that include multiple genres and formats it solicited from various content providers. At the same time, the company was also rumoured to have ramped up its budget for its video content initiative.
In India, Facebook also recently kicked off testing for a suggestions-based video tab that it added to its Android app. The tab works to provide recommendations of a wide variety of video content to users. It is accessible via a video icon placed between the Friends and Notifications shortcuts in the top navigation bar.
Once Facebook’s video push materialises, it is expected to take on existing giants in the video segment including Netflix, which has also been investing large sums of money in video content in an effort to increase its user base and hopefully keep viewers coming back to its platform to watch movies and series.
