There is news today of Google coming out with its version of
‘Instant Articles’, similar to the initiative launched by Facebook in May this
year. Given that very high volume of news and articles is now consumed through Facebook
on mobile devices, Facebook’s instant articles initiative provides improved
user experience with reading news articles from partnering websites on a mobile
device. Articles on instant articles
load much more quickly (ten times faster) compared to standard mobile web articles
and are also more interactive with features such as zooming in on pictures
within the article. Facebook has right
now partnered with nine news websites for the instant article initiative, including
the New York Times, The Guardian, Buzz feed, among others. This initiative has been rolled out to a small
set of iOS users in the test phase and is expected to be rolled out to a larger
population later this year.
The latest news is about Google coming out with a similar
solution but keeping it open source. This
will mean that all publishers, from the big ones to small bloggers will have
the ability to provide their content over Google’s new solution. The bigger
difference seems to be in the level of ownership the publishers will have over
their content. While working with Facebook, publishers are essentially handing
over their content to the social network and it is up to Facebook to feature
the content as it wants (with the implication that partnering websites will be
featured more prominently than other publishers). With Google there is no Google-owned
platform as such where publishers can host their content and Google will not
control where and when the content can feature.
Another key difference between Facebook’s offering and
Google’s proposed offering is revenue generation and sharing. Facebook shares
70% of ad revenue generated through ads featured on the instant articles with
the publishers if the revenue is generated through Facebook selling the ads
(publishers keep 100% of the revenue if they sell the ads). The news as of now
does not indicate any revenue sharing arrangement for the Google solution, with
the publishers having complete control and ownership over ads sold and revenue
generated. This means however that the publishers get no support from Google in
selling ads.
It will be interesting to see how the two different
solutions are received by both publishers and end consumers. Facebook seems to
have an advantage with its billion users who are already using the social
network for consuming news. The revenue sharing arrangement Facebook offers
also seems appealing to users. The solution is likely to be desirable for both
publishers and end consumers, with publishers getting all the support they need
to feature their content in the most consumable ways and consumers getting improved
user experience.
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