Facebook To End Live Compensation, Shifts Focus To Video Instead

Last year, Facebook launched its live streaming service called Facebook Live with huge fanfare. Spending over $50 million, the social media site paid celebrities and professional content producers to drum up some business. It would seem that there will be no repeat of that as Facebook shifts its focus to its Video platform and hosting original premium content.

Recode spoke to several publishers who were on the receiving end of the millions that Facebook paid out last year for the creation of Live content that would draw as much attention to the feature as possible. According to the ones who shared their thoughts on the matter, they don’t expect to be offered another go at paid live streaming content.

Instead, Facebook is ramping up its efforts to have publishers start making high-quality content that will be showing up on the news feeds of users. Based on reports so far, the social media site is basically aiming for a platform that is a cross between Netflix and YouTube.

This is a startling turn of events since the social network’s founder Mark Zuckerberg expressed passionate ideas about where he thought his live streaming feature was headed. This might have something to do with the hints that Facebook executive Ricky Van Veen has been dropping about creating a platform akin to TV.

When asked about this development, the social media site declined to comment. As New York Magazine points out, however, this might be an indication that Facebook finally realized the mistake it made with regards to live streaming. The internet clearly wasn’t ready for that kind of bombastic treatment, especially when considering that some of the most popular live stream content include the Chewbacca Mom.

More than that, in the months that followed its launch, Facebook Live proved its worth during times of real crisis or political developments. These include police shootings of unarmed black men and the sit-in that Democrats staged in order to have some kind of discussion with regards to gun control.