Why Facebook Is Experimenting With A Secondary News Feed

Recently, Mashable reported that Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is testing an “Explore” tab on its core platform, which contains articles, videos and photos relating to users’ interests. This “secondary” news feed (similar to Instagram’s search and explore tab) appears to be aimed at engaging users with more “sponsored” content which would not necessarily appear on their News Feeds. The company started testing this feature for iOS in January, and is now rolling it out for a section of Android users. Facebook is increasingly partnering with publishers to create interesting content on its platform, aiming to engage users on its platform even when their friends are not sharing a lot of personal stories. There is an increasing population of “passive users” on Facebook who do not share their own personal stories, but use the platform as a source of information and updates both on their friends’ lives and other events/content which interest them. Facebook is now investing heavily in content for such users, including bidding for streaming rights to live sports events. However, many users do not like their News Feeds being full of posts other than those shared by their friends, and too much sponsored content. The secondary News Feed tab appears to be one of the solutions Facebook is testing to resolve this challenge.

A dedicated tab where a user will be shown information from business pages and other sponsored content could increase Facebook’s capacity for sponsored links and content on its platform. The average U.S. adult spends nearly 23 minutes on Facebook every day, and this high level of engagement allows the company to experiment with tools which could potentially boost this number further. The secondary News Feed could become a “go-to” place for users to watch videos, read articles, and get updates on events they might be interested in. Further, it could also be used by the company to promote native advertisements, driving revenues in the long term.

Facebook expects a meaningful slowdown in its ad revenue growth going forward. Average revenue per user is a key value driver for the company, and while a slower rate of growth might not impact it significantly, the company does need to ensure that it keeps user engagement levels high and finds new avenues for advertisers to market on its platform.

A secondary News Feed option may be the answer (or at least one answer) to several challenges Facebook is currently facing, and could help the company boost its user engagement in the long term.

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