Facebook is set to host Instant Articles on its platform soon, the company said it will host content from publications such as BuzzFeed, The New York Times, National Geographic and others. The move aims to decrease the load time of articles hosted externally, enhance user engagement and increase the time spent on the social network.
Many publishers now post links to their content on Facebook, which has become an important source of online traffic for news sites. But opening those links on a mobile device can be slow and frustrating, taking around eight seconds.
The Facebook initiative, dubbed Instant Articles, is aimed at speeding that process. Facebook plans to start hosting news and videos from BuzzFeed, The New York Times, National Geographic and other publishers as early as this month, sources said.
The report also said that Facebook is planning some changes in their revenue-sharing process to better incentivize publishers to host their content directly on Facebook.
In one of the models under consideration, publishers would keep all of the revenue from ads they sell on Facebook-hosted news sites, the people familiar with the matter said. If Facebook sells the advertisement, it would keep roughly 30% of the revenue, as it does in many other cases.
Source: The Wall street Journal
