The owner and parent company of Facebook, Meta, in a move to expand its fastest-growing content format, has disclosed the launching of Reels, a short video feature targeted at improving content creators’ earnings, Mark Zuckerberg stated via his official Facebook page.
Reels will be made available on iOS and Android in more than 150 countries in the coming month.
The social media giant prioritized Reels after realizing it has lost a third of its market value through a dismal earnings report. It also sees it as a means of creating competition with the explosively popular short-video app TikTok, owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance.
The new update is expected to include; reels in stories, reels in a watch, top of the feed, and suggestion reels in feed, in order to make it easier for creators to share crosspost – sharing reel to their Facebook and Instagram audience, and it is also part of the variety of opportunities it is creating for creators to earn up to $35,000 a month – based on the views of their qualifying reels.
According to the tech giant, the company is known for building on its experience in helping creators earn meaningful income from their monetization products like in-stream ads and Stars. It is also building direct monetization options for Facebook Reels through ad revenue share and fan support, while it expands the bonus program to more countries so that more creators can get rewarded for creating reels that their communities love.
The tech giant claimed to be starting with two formats which are banner ads that will appear as a semi-transparent overlay at the bottom of a Facebook Reel and sticker ads, a static image ad that can be placed by creators anywhere within their reels. The creators are expected to earn a portion of the ad revenue through non-interruptive ads.
However, the company which has been testing full-screen and immersive ads in between Facebook Reels since October of last year will be rolling out to more places around the world over the coming months while it looks for a way to include other development such as new tools that would make creators earn more with ads and Stars before it is made available in mid-March.
It is noted that Reels has been in existence on Facebook in India, Mexico, Canada, the U.S, and is now available across sub-Saharan Africa in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, Swaziland, South Africa, Seychelles, Senegal, Rwanda, Nigeria, Namibia, Mali, Malawi, Lesotho, Kenya, Guinea, Ghana, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Burkina Faso sequel to this launch.