MUMBAI: The short-format video space is heating up and social networking giants are fighting tooth and nail against ceding ground, or more importantly, revenues, as more and more people turn to the short, snackable content form. Last month, Twitter announced the Super Follows feature that lets users charge for exclusive material not shown to their regular followers; likely a way for the microblogging platform to augment its revenue stream which is primarily advertising driven.

Now, Facebook has come up with new monetisation opportunities for content creators on its platform. The company detailed its plans to help creators make more money, as smaller tech rivals have been racing to attract famous social media personalities. Video creators will now be able to earn money from videos as short as one minute long, with a minimally interruptive ad running at 30 seconds. For videos three minutes or longer, an ad can be shown 45 seconds in.

Facebook made the announcement on its blog Thursday. Previously, only three-minute or longer videos could monetise with in-stream ads, with an ad shown no earlier than one minute. Its aim, they said in the blog post, was to help content creators diversify their revenue on the platform.

"Content creators — digipubs, video creators, gaming creators, media companies, cultural institutions, businesses of all sizes and more — build vibrant communities on Facebook. We want them to have the tools and support they need to earn money and thrive, whether creating and sharing content is a primary business, one of many revenue streams, or a lifeline that’s kept their business afloat during the pandemic," read the blog.

Highlighting more ways in which creators can earn more on Facebook, it said: 

Earn revenue from short-form video: Making it possible for content creators to monetise all video types and testing sticker ads in Stories.
Opening monetisation to more content creators: Updating in-stream ad eligibility so more video creators can access the program, opening access to in-stream ads for Live and expanding paid online events and fan subscriptions to more countries.  
Accelerating fan support: Making it easier for content creators to get access to fan support while growing consumer adoption via free Stars giveaways to viewers.

To be eligible for Facebook's in-stream ad for video-on-demand program, pages must now have 600,000 total minutes viewed from any combination of video uploads – on-demand, Live and previously Live – in the last 60 days. There also should be five or more active video uploads or previously Live videos.

"We’re especially focused on short-form video monetisation. In the coming weeks, we’ll begin testing the ability for content creators to monetise their Facebook Stories with ads that look like stickers and receive a portion of the resulting revenue. While the initial test is small, we hope to soon expand to more content creators. And then broaden it to short-form videos on Facebook, eventually providing a way for content creators to monetise this popular content," Facebook explained.

The company said going ahead, it is exploring in-stream ad formats that increase engagement through rewards or product interaction — intending to help content creator pay-outs grow. By doing this, it also hopes to provide a good viewing experience for people and a way for advertisers to reach relevant audiences.

More creators can now qualify to earn ad revenue from live-streaming videos on Facebook, previously an invite-only program. The tech giant also said it would give away $7 million in free Facebook Stars, which users can pay to creators on Facebook Live as a form of tipping.

Facebook’s decision to incentivise videos of brief duration is the latest in a series of measures it has taken to stave off its biggest competitor – TikTok, which has been siphoning usage from Mark Zuckerberg's family of apps since its launch in 2018. At present, Facebook is testing out a feature in India that allows some content creators to share short video clips, known as Reels, on their Facebook accounts. It is no secret that Instagram’s Reels feature is basically a TikTok clone, wherein users can record short mobile-friendly videos, and add special effects and soundtracks pulled from a music library.