After a long period of slow morphing from social platform to market place, Facebook has set a new course towards publishing by developing tools for independent writers that will allow them creating contents and have them ready on the platform.
The project will start in the US with the possibility for small businesses to expand their reach through new channels and media formats. This will highlight furthermore the importance of content-creation as the main tool to move information and reach users.
It’s an important move by FB especially since Twitter leaped towards newsletters by acquiring Revue, a service similar to Substack, going beyond the boundaries of their platform and reaching new audience segments.
FB will likely face new challenges in terms of online debating and censorship now the company fully steered into publishing. Users subscribing to this type of service can expect topic limitations on what they can publish if FB policies are included, so we can anticipate the online debate to expand furthermore into a micro galaxy of its own.
Publishing has moved from mainstream realms onto smaller and more successful authors/creators over the last ten years, this thanks to internet and the wide availability of electronic devices that allow for a better variety of content browsing.
Personally, I think it’s a great idea to improve how businesses can connect to their audience and customer base. Fresh new approaches are essential to create new curiosity by developing ways to understand social behavior especially in these pandemic times.
This morning I woke up to this message by Joe Rogan announcing his departure from YouTube onto Spotify for an exclusive content deal. The Joe Rogan Experience will slowly move throught the summer and through the fall with his videos and podcasts transitioning to the new hosting platform away from YouTube and Apple Podcasts. This move has the potential to inspire other content creators to seek better deals and conditions to protect their intellectual properties.
Over the last two years YouTube channels have been hit with a demonitization process that took away the majority of earnings from content creators. Ads stopped rolling when companies decided their brand didn’t want to be associated with certain videos and topics, this prompted the YT community to look elsewhere for sponsor funds so they could keep up their output for their fans.
A large number of youtubers create content for the audience so they can watch it for free, yet for some this is a form of hobby and for others a full time job that puts bread on the table. I know many people over the internet believe making video as a childish things, perhaps some dare saying that’s not a real job, however looking at the steady quality of Joe Rogan his passion for conversation and knowledge keeps people listening for hours.
Recent Youtube policy changes in terms of monetization, advertising, content topic, have left creators very bitter especially for the lack of communication from the YT management. The aftermath of all this unwanted shifts prompted big creators to reconsider their position and to protect their intellectual properties. Other minor video/social platforms have emerged and youtubers do parallel uploading of their creations to increase followers and monetizations.
I believe Joe Rogan will set a precedent motivating other big names to move away from Youtube. Even Twich has succumbed to strict policies who have become unfriendly with internet users. But The Joe Rogan Experience is a strategic platforms for hosting a large variety of interesting people from show business to academia. Some of his guests have been at the center of controversis drawing all kinds of attentions, therefore increasing number of viewers and visibility to the podcast.
Rogan has managed to take away from Youtube millions of viewers, investments, followers, with the possibility to start a domino effect affecting the video platform of Google who has drifter away from user-content and more towards cable network influences. His move works also as a statement towards the lack of concerns from Google and other tech giants to address the issues affecting content creators.
User Created Content remains the next frontier of communication for millions of people across continents. With very little youtubers have grown into businesses often registering millions of dollars of profits and a viewership no television channel has ever imagined. This type of digital format has reshaped people’s behevior into adopting mobile devices as the main and respectable alternative to television. I wouldn’t be surprised if YouTube has an actual plan to boot large content creators off their platform to keep only passive viewers, turning it into another television network.
