When it comes to videos, YouTube is definitely king, so much so that many individuals and groups have gone on to make a living just by making YouTube videos and living off the ad revenue they get. However it looks like Facebook wants in on video creation and according to Re/code, ad revenue sharing will be arriving on the social network.
The idea is the same in which the revenue made from ads in the video will be split between Facebook and the video’s creators. However there is a major difference here and that is not everyone will be able to participate in it. It seems that only videos part of Facebook’s “Suggested Videos” feature will benefit from the ad revenue sharing, like NBA, Fox Sports, and Funny or Die, for example.
Facebook believes that they will have the advantage in terms of number of eyeballs because they feel with Suggested Videos, users won’t have to spend time hunting for videos as Facebook will simply show it to them. This is thanks to an algorithm in which whenever you watch a video from a friend or a brand, it will start to show more videos from that person/brand as time goes on.
That being said, limiting the revenue sharing to a few partners does seem to be a put-off for content creators who might just stick to YouTube, but we suppose Facebook has to start somewhere. It might also explain why the company has decided to take a closer look at the videos you watch, perhaps to better refine its algorithm for the future.