Dive Brief:
- Facebook is set to launch Notify, its standalone news app, next week in an effort to grab more of the mobile news marketplace, as first reported by the Financial Times.
- The app complements Facebook’s Instant Articles that gives users of the mobile version of Facebook full articles from publisher partners.
- Notify will launch with its own set of media partners including the Washington Post, CNN, Mashable and Vogue.
Dive Insight:
The news of Facebook's new Notify app comes at the same time as the social network posted strong Q3 earnings results, driven largely by mobile and video growth.
Mobile users are important to Facebook because mobile ads make up more than three quarters of its ad revenue, growing 72% in Q3 year-over-year at $3.3 billion. According to private equity firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, mobile use accounts for almost a quarter of U.S. media consumption, but only 8% of ad spending leaving what the firm estimated as a $25 billion opportunity gap.
Publisher content on mobile devices is becoming popular via apps like Notify, features like Facebook’s Instant Articles and Snapchat’s Discover portal, and tech initiatives like Google and Twitter’s Accelerated Mobile Pages.
Somewhat similar to Facebook’s Instant Articles feature on the mobile version of the platform, Notify will alert app users of content from publisher partners. But unlike Instant Articles, where the entire article is served by Facebook within the app, Notify will send those users back to the publishers’ websites.
