Facebook Watch is giving up on teens and focusing on older users

Facebook wanted Facebook Watch to take on YouTube, but that was always unlikely. The service has struggled since launch, but now Facebook is changing its approach.

In a year, Facebook Watch has attracted just 50 million Facebook users. Compared to YouTube, this number is insignificant. YouTube’s amassed over 1.8 billion monthly users since the platform launched. The problem is younger people aren’t interested in Facebook Watch. Facebook has failed to capture that audience — one that YouTube rules. Keeping the younger generation interested in Facebook has been a struggle for the social network. Additionally, they’ve failed to attract advertisers; they simply aren’t interested in the platform at this time.

Watch Party is open on all pages now

So Facebook Watch is switching gears and focusing more on Facebook’s strengths: social. Facebook today fully launched Watch Party to all profile and Pages on the platform. It’s the company’s co-viewing feature that lets users see and comment on the same video at the same time. Any profile or business can post a Watch Party invite to sync with other users. Then they can simultaneously view videos.

Facebook Watch is giving up on young people and focusing on older audiences

CNBC reports Facebook is ending its efforts to attract young teens to its video hub and is instead focusing its efforts towards attracting older audiences. Facebook believes users will enjoy having a shared watching experience with multiple users commenting together on clips.

Watch Party hosts go live

Facebook is also trying to allow Watch Party hosts to go Live picture-in-picture. Essentially, this feature will make viewers feel like they’re sitting next to the streamer watching TV. This could be a feature used by celebrities.

Facebook wants to become one of the great video platforms, but it clearly still has ways to go. It needs to find an audience and, most important, attract compelling content to the platform.

Sean Berry
Sean Berry
Sean Berry is Videomaker's Managing Editor.

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