Facebook today and tomorrow

Tom Alison, Head of Facebook, today shares his vision for “Facebook today and tomorrow” in the areas of artificial intelligence, messaging, creators and monetization.

Here is an overview of some developments in these areas:

• Facebook is investing in AI-powered discovery to show people relevant content from public groups in their feed and recommend creators
• New features make it even easier to find creators you like
• A diverse monetization offering allows creators to earn money with Facebook in the way that makes most sense for them
• Private conversations are becoming increasingly important, so in the future it will be easier to share feed content in messages.

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Facebook today and tomorrow: Tom Alison, Head of Facebook writes…

Facebook has started the year well. Contrary to reports to the contrary, Facebook is anything but “dead”, but is alive and well two billion daily active users People use Facebook not only to communicate with friends and family, but also to discover new things and engage with the things that are most important to them. Today I want to share more about what we're doing to give people the best Facebook experience using AI and the opportunities we're creating for creators.

AI-powered discovery

Over the last 20 years or so, people have used Facebook for many different things. Among other things, to see what is happening with their friends and family and to exchange ideas in groups and make connections. There has been a shift in recent years: people are increasingly coming to Facebook to be entertained, discover something new or see what's going on in the world. These new reasons are why we are investing in AI-powered discovery.

There are billions of people in the world doing interesting things. We're working to make these experiences accessible to more people by showing them content that's likely to interest them. We want to give each and every individual the opportunity to express themselves in the format that works best for them: be it text, photo or video. And we make it easy to share content with the audiences you care about most. Sometimes it's a circle of friends, sometimes it's a group, and more and more people want to share themselves publicly.  

We believe Facebook can become the best place for social discovery and content sharing , thanks to our combination of easy-to-use formats, easy access to the audiences that matter most, and world-class artificial intelligence that can deliver content to the people you care about. that they value most.

This work is particularly important for Reels, which continues to show strong growth in both creation and usage across our apps. I'm optimistic about the trends we're seeing here - with more than 140 billion Reels plays on Facebook and Instagram per day . At Facebook, we use AI to recommend all types of content beyond Reels: photos, posts, groups, short and long videos, and more.

This is a massive technological undertaking, and my team recently shared more about how to deliver and optimize Show More/Show Less We also have safeguards in place to ensure that recommendations are not harmful and do not violate our Community Standards.

One example of how this work is enabling a new experience on Facebook is through groups. Previously, you might have been invited to a group by a friend, searched for a group based on a specific need or interest, or received a suggestion of “groups that might interest you.” Using artificial intelligence (AI) that finds public group content based on one's interests, we can now show people relevant content from public groups in their feed. This connects them with other people they might want to meet or who knowing might help them, without having to search for them or rely on referrals to discover a group.

Creators and monetization

It's a great time to be a creator. You have many options, and while Facebook isn't always the primary platform for creators, it's an important app for them to continue their journey - offering the opportunity to reach more than 2 billion daily active users to connect more securely and deeply with the community, as well as access to one of the most diverse ranges of monetization options of any creator app.

Advances in our AI-powered recommendations also contribute to creator discovery on Facebook. We use AI to identify creators who match your interests and to improve recommendations for Reels and other exciting content from creators in your feed. Beyond recommendations, we've introduced several new features to make it easier to find creators you might like :

• a designation for popular creators as “Rising Creators”
• a new section in the feed that recommends creators to follow
• an improved “Follow” action to follow creators discovered in recommendations or comments on Facebook

We also invest heavily in developing tools for creators . We've worked to dramatically simplify the Facebook experience for creators, introduce more formats for creative expression, provide tools for building and managing communities, and expand the ways you can make money as a creator on Facebook .

For example, late last year we launched Professional Mode for profiles worldwide , a simplified way for creators to access monetization opportunities and professional tools. Since then, tens of millions of people have adapted this mode, improving interaction between creators and their fans.

Parker Pannell , an up-and-coming creator and actor, has massively increased his reach and audience. In the last month alone he has reached more than 30 million people and his follower count has increased from 13,000 to 118,000 in the last year - all on Facebook. He has Reels with funny skits, pranks, etc. that have helped him reach new audiences. He says, “I feel like my videos are getting more attention on Facebook and my entire audience is seeing them.”

Over the years, we've one of the most diverse monetization offerings among creator apps , so creators can make money in the ways that make most sense for them. This year we're focusing on adapting and improving these short-form video capabilities. We will

• Continue to expand our ad testing on Facebook Reels so more creators can generate ad revenue for their Reels
• increase the number of stars and virtual gifts on Reels
• expand our bonus programs that make it easier for creators to get started on Facebook.

Messaging

Private conversations are an important way people share and connect across our apps. Today, over 140 billion messages are sent through our services every day. As more social interactions move to messaging, we'll make it easier for people to share what they discover in the feed via messaging - when, where and how it suits their needs, without having to switch to another app .

On Instagram, Reels are already being shared through DMs almost a billion times a day , and on Facebook we're seeing private sharing of Reels also growing rapidly. We're currently testing the ability for users to access their Messenger inbox within the Facebook app, and we'll expand these tests soon.

We're also seeing more and more people using messaging to build community. Last year, we started introducing community chats to some Facebook groups so people could engage in real-time conversations about the topics that matter to them. And the first results are promising: on Facebook and Messenger, the number of users trying out community chats increased by 50 percent in December 2022.

As the year progresses, we'll work on additional ways to integrate messaging features into Facebook. Ultimately, we want it to be easy and convenient for people to connect and share - whether in the Messenger app or directly on Facebook.

outlook

At Meta, we pride ourselves on putting people at the center of new technology trends. Our investments in AI open up new ways for people to discover exciting new content and share it with the people they care about. As our Meta AI research teams continue to make advances in AI, particularly generative AI, Facebook – and Meta as a whole – will look to bring this transformative technology to billions of people and enable them to create content in new ways and to share.

Source: Facebook Newsroom

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