Meta’s Facebook revamping main feed to attract younger users

A smartphone with Fb’s emblem is seen in entrance of displayed Fb’s new rebrand emblem Meta on this illustration taken October 28, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/

July 21 (Reuters) – Meta Platforms (META.O) stated on Thursday it was revamping the principle feed on its Fb app to prioritize “discovery” of latest content material, as a substitute of posts from accounts customers observe, a bid to fashion its apps after short-form video competitor TikTok.

Meta executives have voiced elevated urgency in latest months round boosting the corporate’s “Reels” product, just like TikTok’s quick video format that has attracted many youthful customers.

“House”, Fb’s predominant information feed tab that customers will see once they open the app, will begin extra closely that includes fashionable posts from accounts that customers don’t observe, together with Reels and Tales, Meta stated in an announcement.

Fb will counsel posts to customers with its machine studying rating system and is investing in synthetic intelligence (AI) to serve beneficial content material, it added.

A brand new separate tab referred to as ‘Feeds’ will provide aversion of the previous strategy, which overwhelmingly options posts from mates, pages and teams that customers actively select to observe.

Feeds in that tab might be introduced chronologically, with out personalised rating, Chief Govt Officer Mark Zuckerberg stated in a Fb publish. Meta stated the feeds won’t embody advised posts however will nonetheless have commercials.

The world’s greatest social media firm has gone all in on algorithmic suggestions in latest months because the risk from TikTok has grown, a stark change from its 2018 plan to characteristic extra posts from family and friends within the information feed.

Its Instagram app introduced assessments of a extra “immersive” TikTok-style viewing expertise in Could, whereas Zuckerberg instructed buyers in April that Meta was making important investments to help the “discovery engine” strategy. learn extra

Earlier this month, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox instructed workers there was a plan to extend fivefold the variety of graphic processing items (GPUs) in its knowledge facilities by the year-end to supply additional computing energy for AI.

Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Katie Paul; Enhancing by Rashmi Aich and David Gregorio

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