Facebook share price: Company holds discussions with publishers over hosting news content

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), the world’s largest social media company, wants to host content from news publishers inside its own site, The New York Times has reported. Citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation, the newspaper said yesterday that in recent months Facebook had been quietly holding talks with at least half a dozen media companies over the plan. According to two of the sources, the tech giant plans to begin testing the new format in the next several months, with initial partner expected to be The New York Times, BuzzFeed and National Geographic. Other partners might also be added to the roster, the report suggested.

Facebook has become a big driver of traffic to new websites in recent years, but now the company wants to go beyond simply allowing users to share links to external sources on the social network. Hosting some of the content inside Facebook would provide certain benefits such as faster load times for articles, especially on mobile devices.
According to Edward Kim, chief executive of the analytics and distribution company SimpleReach, marginal increases in the speed of a site result in big increases in user satisfaction and in traffic. Kim suggested that Facebook’s plan was focused on those small improvements, rather than on getting money from deals with media companies.
“But there are a lot of implications for publishers,” Kim added, as quoted by The NYT. “It really comes down to how Facebook structures this, and how they can ensure this is a win on both sides.”
To make its plan more appealing to publishers, Facebook has reportedly offered them to share advertising revenue. The NYT said that the company had discussed ways for publishers to make money from advertising that would run alongside the content.
In today’s trading, Facebook shares were 1.3 percent higher at $85.50 as of 14:09 UTC. The stock has risen 9.5 percent since the start of the year. The company’s market capitalisation currently stands at $239.3 billion.
As of 14:58 GMT, Tuesday, 24 March, Facebook Inc share price is $85.32.

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