After seven years of providing news hounds with the Facebook instant article function, Meta will end it in the middle of 2023.
In an email to Gizmodo, a representative for Meta confirmed that the company had informed its publishers that it would discontinue offering the service of instant articles by mid-April 2023.
Instant articles on Facebook were designed to load rapidly on mobile devices. This feature’s introduction was accompanied by a statement by Meta that it will “load and show 10 times faster than the normal mobile web.”
Facebook benefited from the deal at the time, but it is no longer profitable for Facebook now.
Less than 3% of postings in Facebook’s News Feed that link to news items are currently visible to users worldwide, the representative told Gizmodo. Additionally, as we have stated this year, businesses shouldn’t overinvest in areas that don’t reflect user preferences.
This move by Meta demonstrates their goals and strategy to shift away from hard-core news and toward more video content.
The publishers now have six months to devise a backup plan after receiving the shutdown notice.
