Facebook will early next year introduce a new advertising feature in the form of TV-like commercials on the News Feed section of its social networking site, as the company looks to reap profits from advertising.
“By April at the latest, it will offer video advertisers the chance to target video ads to large numbers of Facebook users in their news feeds on both the desktop version of Facebook as well as on Facebook apps on mobile phones and tablets,” Facebook executives were quoted as saying by AdAge.
The videos will be capped at 15 seconds in length, with the company still debating whether the ads will play automatically or not.
“On the desktop version of Facebook, the video ads are expected to grab a user’s attention by expanding out of the news feed into webpage real estate in both the left and right columns — or rails — of the screen,” AdAge quoted television industry executives as saying.
Facebook is reportedly working on a way to ensure that the video ads stand out on mobile apps as well. It is unclear how the company intends to distribute the videos, raising questions as to how advertisers would distribute the TV commercials on the site and whether the ads will be targeted solely at its Facebook fans or the larger Facebook user base.
There are also concerns that the Autoplay function, if activated, will infringe on users’ privacy.
