San Francisco (AFP)
Facebook on Tuesday announced the acceleration of the international deployment of its news section in the next six months, starting in particular with Brazil, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and India, and in promising to pay the publishers.
"Facebook News" was installed on the mobile application of the social network in the United States, after a test phase which started at the end of 2019.
It had a "strong start" in the country, ensures the press release from the platform.
The section offers a selection of articles from daily newspapers, magazines and partner sites, and is powered by a team of journalists and "personalization" algorithms.
The social networking giant pays part of the partners, who are more than 200 in the United States, including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, People, ABC channels, CBS News or Fox News.
"In each country, we will pay for the posts to make sure their content is available in the new section," said Campbell Brown, a Facebook vice president responsible for international partnerships for the section in the statement.
"We will continue to design new products and make investments around the world to help the press build viable business models over time," she added.
Relations between platforms like Facebook or Google (including YouTube) and traditional media are complicated.
The advertising revenues on which newspapers, radio and television stations depend have massively transferred online and onto social networks, where the public can read and watch some of the news for free.
Many publications have therefore set up paid subscriptions to access articles and videos, but they largely depend on links on platforms to redirect users to their websites and mobile applications.
© 2020 AFP