Facebook Introduces Watch Video Product for Short Series

Facebook introduced a new video hub on the world’s largest social network, offering some U.S. users short episodic series from content partners including A&E, Major League Baseball and National Geographic, according to Bloomberg.

The new section, called Watch, is meant to increase the amount of time users spend watching video by giving them a place to follow and discuss original shows, which can then be shared via their news feeds and in Facebook groups, according to product director Daniel Danker. It will organize shows by what’s most talked about, what friends are watching and what the user is following.

Facebook paid to seed some of the original content that will appear in the section. Among the episodes: “My Social Media Life,“ a reality show about internet celebrity David Lopez, and “Great Cheese Hunt,“ in which Business Insider seeks out some of the world’s best cheese. Eventually, Facebook will roll out Watch to more users and show producers.

Facebook intends for the publishers to make money by splitting revenue from ads placed in the videos, or from creating videos with advertisers from the get-go. Facebook will bring in about 20 percent of the $83 billion advertisers spend online in the U.S. this year, according to eMarketer. Google receives about 41 percent of that revenue.

The social media giant is just one of many technology companies funding original shows, from Snap to YouTube to Amazon. Facebook’s approach bears more resemblance to YouTube than Netflix or Amazon given its focus on short-form videos designed to be shared online. The company also is backing a handful of TV-length episodes, but doesn’t want to fund videos in the long term.