Facebook Reels will now come to 150 countries. (Image credit: Facebook) Facebook’s Reels is going global with the company rolling out the feature to 150 countries along with some new features. In a Facebook post, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote, “Reels is already our fastest-growing content format by far, and today we’re making it available to everyone on Facebook globally. We want Reels to be the best place for creators to connect with their community and make a living, so we’re launching new monetisation tools too.”
Reels, the short video format and Meta’s answer to TikTok, has emerged as a major success on Instagram and has also helped the company’s photo and video sharing platform grow much faster in markets like India, where TikTok got banned in 2020. Last year, Facebook had rolled out Reels to its main app as well, though this was limited to the US.
Facebook will also let creators earn money from these Reels and will expand tests of overlay ads, starting with banner and sticker ads. In an official newsroom post, Facebook says that the Reels feature will come to iOS and Android in more than 150 countries and users will be able to view them from the Watch tab in the Facebook app.
The company will also have a new Reels label at the top of Feed on the app, and will show ‘Suggested Reels in Feed’ for select countries. It is already doing this on Instagram. These suggested Reels also include those from people one does not already follow.
The post adds that half of the time spent on Facebook and Instagram is spent watching videos, with Reels dominating. Regarding monetisation, Facebook will also build direct monetisation options for Facebook Reels through ad revenue share and fan support.
“We’re expanding tests of Facebook Reels Overlay Ads to all creators in the US, Canada and Mexico, and to more countries in the coming weeks. We’re starting with two formats: banner ads that 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 a creator anywhere within their reel,” the post explains. Facebook says these ads will be non-interruptive and creators will get a portion of the ad revenue.
Further, any creator in the US, Canada and Mexico who is part of the company’s in-stream ads program is automatically eligible to monetise their publicly-shared reels with ads. By mid-March, these tests will expand to creators in nearly all countries where in-stream ads are available, adds the post.
Facebook will also test Stars on Reels in the coming weeks. In this users can buy and send Stars to a creator while watching these Reels. These Stars are meant to show support to the creator and they get the revenue from these.
The company will also “brand suitability controls, including Publisher Lists, Blocklists, Inventory Filters and Delivery Reports for Banner and Sticker Ads” for Reels in every region. This will give “advertisers more control over how their ads appear in places they don’t consider suitable for their brand or campaign,” the company said.
Facebook has also been testing “full-screen and immersive ads” playing between Reels since October 2021. It will roll them out to more places around the world over the coming months.
Reels on Facebook will continue to have the same features as the format on Instagram. This includes the ability to ‘Remix’ a reel with another public reel on Facebook. Further, Reels can be 60 seconds long on Facebook, and users have the option of saving a draft before publishing.
Facebook will also “roll out video clipping tools that will make it easier for creators who publish live or long-form, recorded videos to test different formats,” in the coming months.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
