Why Facebook is making a big bet on Messenger

eleshpate25

On the first day of Facebook’s developer conference this week, the company [a href="https://www.getrevue.co/profile/caseynewton/issues/at-f8-facebook-focuses-on-privacy-and-little-else-175975"]sketched out a vision of its message-centric future[/a]. One of the most striking things about this move, from a product perspective, is how it demotes the News Feed. While Mark Zuckerberg says that what he calls “the digital town square” will continue to be important, the product itself will attempt to draw you into virtual living rooms: private groups, events, and messages.[br][br]As I noted here yesterday, part of what is driving this change is the fact that users are already voting with their clicks and taps — spending less time in the News Feed than they are in more private spaces. Sharing photos and videos with friends still appears to be quite popular in Instagram and WhatsApp, which continue to build out new products to support the activity.[br][br]But say you’re one of the hundreds of millions of people who spends most of their time on Facebook proper. Where is the place where you’re supposed to see what your friends are doing and send them messages? That was the core feedback loop that got Facebook this year. In a world where people stop posting to the News Feed, where will they go?[br][br][img src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UP_gzmY6NLEdr60-fSgUBFRbktE=/0x0:8713x5600/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:8713x5600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16205826/Close_Friends.jpg"][br][br]We actually got a pretty good answer to that question during F8 this week, though it could be hard to discern against the din of other product announcements. But Facebook does have a plan for your real friends on Facebook — and the plan is unfolding in Messenger.[br][br]

001Himanshu

Nice.