5 ms·

Facebook plans to pay creators $1B to use its products

33 points by jaredwiener 5y ago

burgessaccount 5y ago
This feels like when Microsoft pays for TV characters to use Bing instead of Google. It doesn’t make Bing look cooler, it just makes the TV shows look cheap.
- slownews45 5y ago
  No kidding - it can be jarring sometimes. A sharp character starts breaking out Bing on IE. Uh? You'd be expecting maybe firefox for the weirdo - not bing / IE :) At least edge is out now so that's not so bad.
- hoppyhoppy2 5y ago
  On the other hand, YouTube paying content creators has helped that platform remain dominant.
  - Alex3917 5y ago
    Does YouTube pay content creators beyond the revenue they generate?
  - burgessaccount 5y ago
    Yeah. I guess my instinct would be this is something platforms have to do while they’re still considered cool? Like Snapchat could have done this seven years ago but couldn't pull it off now?
  - xkjkls 5y ago
    It's easier to pay to keep a brand on top. If you're paying to revive the reputation of a brand, the uphill climb is much more painful.
- gopalv 5y ago
  > It doesn’t make Bing look cooler, it just makes the TV shows look cheap Product name-drops are just one thing, the corporate placement also cares about how it is used and by whom. Apple says you can't put an iPhone in a villain's hand and indirectly gives away the plot of Knives Out.
  - jandrese 5y ago
    I remember the TV show 24 where you could identify which of the counter-terrorism team members was betraying Kiefer Sutherland this hour by noticing which one was suddenly using a Dell instead of their usual Mac.
Hobli 5y ago
Good. Creators will finally produce content for Grandma.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Bancakes 5y ago
Future fines by the EU should factor in FAANG's willingness to invest 10-digit numbers around.
kevinventullo 5y ago
About time. Snap, TikTok, Twitch, and especially YouTube all have partnership programs which pay content creators directly based on how many views/subscribers/etc they have. I.e. revenue sharing. I never understood why FB thought they could plausibly compete with YT on video when the only compensation offered to low/mid-tier content creators was… likes?
- ipsum2 5y ago
  Facebook's been doing revenue sharing for at least 5 years: https://vidooly.com/blog/facebook-video-ads-revenue-sharing-model-creators/ https://vidooly.com/blog/facebook-video-ads-revenue-sharing-...
ramshanker 5y ago
Meanwhile Twitch has locked in many of the creators with 24 Hrs platform exclusivity. High viewership count twitch streamers are not going to risk their twitch partnership status because Facebook is offering some subsidy.
- haunter 5y ago
  >High viewership count twitch streamers are not going to risk their twitch partnership status because Facebook is offering some subsidy. There are several "High viewership count twitch streamers" who moved to Facebook because they got a much better offer. DisguisedToast, KingSlayer, Corinna Kopf etc. Also there is still a difference between someone like Asmongold who pulls 100k viewers and has fuck you amount of money and others with 5-10k viewers. 5-10k makes you a 1% on Twitch but you are still on another league from Asmon, Shroud etc. Last but not least seasonal fluctuation is real for a lot of streamers see the current WoW worlds first race where the racing guild memebers are having 30-50k viewers but that's gone next week when the race is over.
  - k12sosse 5y ago
    First we had stretching yoga shorts, then we had hot tubs/kiddy pools indoors, then we had ear-licking. There'll always be something for the twitch crowd to keep them coming back and pretending the strimmers care about em.
Firebrand 5y ago
> On Wednesday, mobile insights firm Sensor Tower said that TikTok was the most-downloaded app globally in the first half of 2021. TikTok also surpassed 3 billion installations globally, SensorTower said, making it the first non-Facebook app to exceed that figure. Seems a bit cheating to combine Douyin and TikTok download numbers even if they are nearly identical apps. https://sensortower.com/blog/tiktok-downloads-3-billion https://sensortower.com/blog/tiktok-downloads-3-billion
notamy 5y ago
If you're getting blocked by the paywall, here's a no-paywall alternative link: https://archive.is/CX5aT https://archive.is/CX5aT
- Digit-Al 5y ago
  A tip for those on Firefox. The paywall takes a second or two to activate so I worked out that once it comes up if you hit F5 to refresh and wait for the text to appear and then immediately go into reader view you can usually beat the script. Boom! No paywall.
  - jraph 5y ago
    blocking scripts on this website with uBlock Origin probably works, then.
candiddevmike 5y ago
I think it's a sad sign of the times that people live vicariously through fake internet personalities--their eyeballs create monetary incentives to push these personalities to become even more fake and banal. All for tiny algorithmically derived dopamine hits and YouTube faces.
- syncbehind 5y ago
  > I think it's a sad sign of the times that people live vicariously through fake internet personalities Yeah,unlike when people vicariously through fake tv personalities/ book personalities/ theater?
- avalys 5y ago
  As opposed to the good old 1990s where people lived vicariously through fake TV personalities?
cratermoon 5y ago
Social media should have been paying users from day 1. FB makes money by packaging up and sharing user content as bait for paid ads. While it's reasonable for FB to keep some of the ad revenue, to offset the infrastructure and recurring costs of running the system, without user-generated content there'd be nothing for social media companies to offer to advertisers to get attention. In short, every kitten picture uploaded to FB is worth something. It's not free for the user to upload, either, at least not when the externalities of having home internet are counted. FB revenue sharing should include every user, according to network effects value added, not just the "content creators", who are usually already getting paid by sponsors for shilling whatever.
- ipsum2 5y ago
  Hacker news should be paying for the quality user-generated comments here. They make money by advertising YC companies, which are worth billions! Also, the upload bandwidth of my text here is at least a quarter of a cent.
  - badtuple 5y ago
    Agreed. I'm going on strike.
    - amorroxic 5y ago
      Three strikes and you’re banned forever, better choose the moment well.
  - zepto 5y ago
    > the upload bandwidth of my text here is at least a quarter of a cent. Only because it’s 1989 and you are using a v23 modem.
- justapassenger 5y ago
  Social media companies pay users from day 1 by providing service for them. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. There's of course power imbalance, and it's valid to talk about who gets more value of it, and how that should be balanced. But let's not pretend that users get nothing in return.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
nickfromseattle 5y ago
This is pretty much what Tik Tok did. They spent $1B on influencer marketing through IG / FB.

33 points by jaredwiener 5y ago

This feels like when Microsoft pays for TV characters to use Bing instead of Google. It doesn’t make Bing look cooler, it just makes the TV shows look cheap.

slownews45 5y ago
No kidding - it can be jarring sometimes. A sharp character starts breaking out Bing on IE. Uh? You'd be expecting maybe firefox for the weirdo - not bing / IE :) At least edge is out now so that's not so bad.
hoppyhoppy2 5y ago
On the other hand, YouTube paying content creators has helped that platform remain dominant.
- Alex3917 5y ago
  Does YouTube pay content creators beyond the revenue they generate?
- burgessaccount 5y ago
  Yeah. I guess my instinct would be this is something platforms have to do while they’re still considered cool? Like Snapchat could have done this seven years ago but couldn't pull it off now?
- xkjkls 5y ago
  It's easier to pay to keep a brand on top. If you're paying to revive the reputation of a brand, the uphill climb is much more painful.
gopalv 5y ago
> It doesn’t make Bing look cooler, it just makes the TV shows look cheap Product name-drops are just one thing, the corporate placement also cares about how it is used and by whom. Apple says you can't put an iPhone in a villain's hand and indirectly gives away the plot of Knives Out.
- jandrese 5y ago
  I remember the TV show 24 where you could identify which of the counter-terrorism team members was betraying Kiefer Sutherland this hour by noticing which one was suddenly using a Dell instead of their usual Mac.

Hobli 5y ago

Good. Creators will finally produce content for Grandma.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

Bancakes 5y ago

Future fines by the EU should factor in FAANG's willingness to invest 10-digit numbers around.

kevinventullo 5y ago

About time. Snap, TikTok, Twitch, and especially YouTube all have partnership programs which pay content creators directly based on how many views/subscribers/etc they have. I.e. revenue sharing. I never understood why FB thought they could plausibly compete with YT on video when the only compensation offered to low/mid-tier content creators was… likes?

ipsum2 5y ago
Facebook's been doing revenue sharing for at least 5 years: https://vidooly.com/blog/facebook-video-ads-revenue-sharing-model-creators/ https://vidooly.com/blog/facebook-video-ads-revenue-sharing-...

ramshanker 5y ago

Meanwhile Twitch has locked in many of the creators with 24 Hrs platform exclusivity. High viewership count twitch streamers are not going to risk their twitch partnership status because Facebook is offering some subsidy.

haunter 5y ago
>High viewership count twitch streamers are not going to risk their twitch partnership status because Facebook is offering some subsidy. There are several "High viewership count twitch streamers" who moved to Facebook because they got a much better offer. DisguisedToast, KingSlayer, Corinna Kopf etc. Also there is still a difference between someone like Asmongold who pulls 100k viewers and has fuck you amount of money and others with 5-10k viewers. 5-10k makes you a 1% on Twitch but you are still on another league from Asmon, Shroud etc. Last but not least seasonal fluctuation is real for a lot of streamers see the current WoW worlds first race where the racing guild memebers are having 30-50k viewers but that's gone next week when the race is over.
- k12sosse 5y ago
  First we had stretching yoga shorts, then we had hot tubs/kiddy pools indoors, then we had ear-licking. There'll always be something for the twitch crowd to keep them coming back and pretending the strimmers care about em.

Firebrand 5y ago

> On Wednesday, mobile insights firm Sensor Tower said that TikTok was the most-downloaded app globally in the first half of 2021. TikTok also surpassed 3 billion installations globally, SensorTower said, making it the first non-Facebook app to exceed that figure. Seems a bit cheating to combine Douyin and TikTok download numbers even if they are nearly identical apps. https://sensortower.com/blog/tiktok-downloads-3-billion https://sensortower.com/blog/tiktok-downloads-3-billion

notamy 5y ago

If you're getting blocked by the paywall, here's a no-paywall alternative link: https://archive.is/CX5aT https://archive.is/CX5aT

Digit-Al 5y ago
A tip for those on Firefox. The paywall takes a second or two to activate so I worked out that once it comes up if you hit F5 to refresh and wait for the text to appear and then immediately go into reader view you can usually beat the script. Boom! No paywall.
- jraph 5y ago
  blocking scripts on this website with uBlock Origin probably works, then.

candiddevmike 5y ago

I think it's a sad sign of the times that people live vicariously through fake internet personalities--their eyeballs create monetary incentives to push these personalities to become even more fake and banal. All for tiny algorithmically derived dopamine hits and YouTube faces.

syncbehind 5y ago
> I think it's a sad sign of the times that people live vicariously through fake internet personalities Yeah,unlike when people vicariously through fake tv personalities/ book personalities/ theater?
avalys 5y ago
As opposed to the good old 1990s where people lived vicariously through fake TV personalities?

cratermoon 5y ago

Social media should have been paying users from day 1. FB makes money by packaging up and sharing user content as bait for paid ads. While it's reasonable for FB to keep some of the ad revenue, to offset the infrastructure and recurring costs of running the system, without user-generated content there'd be nothing for social media companies to offer to advertisers to get attention. In short, every kitten picture uploaded to FB is worth something. It's not free for the user to upload, either, at least not when the externalities of having home internet are counted. FB revenue sharing should include every user, according to network effects value added, not just the "content creators", who are usually already getting paid by sponsors for shilling whatever.

ipsum2 5y ago
Hacker news should be paying for the quality user-generated comments here. They make money by advertising YC companies, which are worth billions! Also, the upload bandwidth of my text here is at least a quarter of a cent.
- badtuple 5y ago
  Agreed. I'm going on strike.
  - amorroxic 5y ago
    Three strikes and you’re banned forever, better choose the moment well.
- zepto 5y ago
  > the upload bandwidth of my text here is at least a quarter of a cent. Only because it’s 1989 and you are using a v23 modem.
justapassenger 5y ago
Social media companies pay users from day 1 by providing service for them. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. There's of course power imbalance, and it's valid to talk about who gets more value of it, and how that should be balanced. But let's not pretend that users get nothing in return.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

nickfromseattle 5y ago

This is pretty much what Tik Tok did. They spent $1B on influencer marketing through IG / FB.