Social media giant Facebook has launched its much hyped publishing tool ‘Instant Articles’. The format allows publishers like The New York Times, National Geographic, BuzzFeed, The Guardian, and BBC to publish content directly through the social network.
Facebook insists that stories took an average of eight seconds to load on its app, by far the slowest single content type. But the dynamic ‘Instant Articles’ makes the reading experience as much as ten times faster than standard mobile web articles.
Along with a faster experience, ‘Instant Articles’ introduces a suite of interactive features - Zoom in and explore high-resolution photos by tilting your phone, watch auto-play videos come alive as you scroll through stories and many more.
But it is the publishing industry that has got the biggest boost with ‘Instant Articles’. Publishers can sell ads in their articles and keep the revenue, or they can choose to use Facebook’s Audience Network to monetize unsold inventory.
Instant Articles lets them deliver fast, interactive articles while maintaining control of their content and business models.
- Chris Cox, Facebook Chief Product Officer
If the tall claims and the big names on its list are anything to go by, ‘Instant Articles’ is a definite game changer. But will it deliver in the long run? The jury is out on that.
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