LONDON: Facebook’s CEO unveiled new initiatives at the social network’s annual developer’s conference that could threaten Silicon Valley players from Twitter to snap chat.
Among Facebook’s new features: the ability to post videos and embed them on any other Web site a key feature of Google’s YouTube service that Facebook didn’t previously offer.
That, combined with for now the lack of annoying preview ads, could increase momentum for Facebook videos, which already see 3 billion streams a day, according to the company.
Facebook is likewise gearing up to battle Google with an upgrade that allows its advertising platform Live Rail to serve video and mobile ads from Facebook or other networks directly to mobile apps.
Using its vast trove of user data, Facebook can clue in developers on how their ads are faring a capability that threatens rival services from Google, Yahoo! and Twitter’s MoPub platform.
Facebook also confirmed that it is opening up its Messenger service to a slew of third-party app developers. Users will be able to insert funny videos and sports clips into text conversations. A new feature that’s being tested with retailers, including Zulily, allows shoppers to communicate over Messenger about orders they’ve made.
With more than 40 apps already on board for the launch, Facebook is looking to transform Messenger whose users currently number 600 million into a full-featured platform like its flagship social network, which currently boasts 1.4 billion users.
Among the first apps will be those from ESPN, the Weather Channel and an app called Giphy that allows users to select from a massive library of funny pictures to illustrate common phrases and ideas.
“This is just the first step toward creating better sharing experiences across this whole family of apps,” Zuckerberg said on stage at the conference.
He also showed off “spherical video,” an immersive new video format shot by a cluster of 24 cameras in which the viewer can rotate his or her field of view.
While Zuckerberg was stingy with details, the upcoming service looked like a good fit for the company’s Oculus VR virtual reality headsets.
