According to The Ken, Facebook is prepping to bring the Watch video streaming service to India by January-March 2018. The video streaming service of the social media giant was already launched in the U.S. back in August this year.
The service, for now, provides content on lifestyle spanning, comedy, live sports events, and children’s entertainment. It is open to several creators and viewers and seems to receive more upgrades in the near future. You can find the service already in any video tab of Facebook’s desktop, mobile, and TV apps. Users may also follow the dedicated Facebook Pages for the shows in order to get updates.
With India being the most populous country in terms of Facebook users, this is the initiative of Facebook to expand the Watch streaming video service. As per last July stats, India has 241 million users while the U.S. trails just behind with 240 million.
Furthermore, India is a largely English-speaking country, and about 400 million internet users can use smartphones to watch videos. In fact, a prediction in March by Financial Express states that this nascent video streaming market will be worth $272 million in 2017.
Additionally, Facebook arguably provides the cheapest mobile data cost to users. And the social media firm can precisely target users via immense data points regarding interests and demographics. Various other facilities like autoplay video in mobile app and download clips to watch later offline indicate Facebook to have a grand leap in terms of market revenue by making the Watch video streaming service available in India.
As The Ken reports, the Watch will solve an issue that creators are facing on YouTube discoverability. The Watch video tab may turn out to be a better platform for showcasing content where they don’t have to depend on YouTube’s algorithmic recommendations. But it may require a shorter roster of videos for the Watch video streaming service to work precisely.
Facebook is going to source regional-language content in order to provide the service to the country. Not only that, the social media company is also pursuing independent producers for its new Creator app. This helps Facebook enhance live videos with deep analytics and professional graphics.
