To compete with services like Clubhouse and Spotify, Facebook announced a slew of new audio features last year. However, a new report claims that the company appears to be losing interest quickly in the audio initiative.
According to TechCrunch, Facebook is reducing its focus on podcasts and audio experiences in order to focus on other projects with its podcast partners. According to industry executives who work with the platform, the company is now focusing on events in the metaverse and online shopping in its conversations with podcasters and creators.
According to the report, Facebook's parent company Meta Inc. is also focusing on short-form video projects in addition to the metaverse. In recent years, Facebook has had difficulty attracting new users under the age of thirty. Due to increased regulatory and public scrutiny and intense competition from TikTok and Snapchat, the company reported its first-ever decline in daily active users in Q4 2021.
Social media giant Facebook is still working on podcasts, according to a Facebook spokesperson, indicating that the company may not completely abandon podcasts. According to a company spokesperson, the company is seeing a lot of interest in its audio products, but they refused to provide specific numbers.
In order to compete with Clubhouse, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts, Facebook launched an audio product. Facebook even considered starting a training program in order to attract more content creators to its platform, according to Bloomberg. More than 15 podcasters from various backgrounds were trained as part of the program on how to use Facebook's podcasting platform to create their shows. In the end, the plan never came to fruition, however.
Tokimosta, Russell Wilson, Kehlani, Reggie Watts, and more were just a few of the public figures and creators who worked with Facebook on the launch of its Live Audio Room feature.
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