Recently I wrote about how Facebook expanded its ad service into third-party apps. Yet it appears the social network is now taking a much more direct route to expanding its ad space inventory by introducing another app.
Facebook is reportedly testing a new app called Notify, a stand-alone app that aggregates select publisher content and sends users notifications from these outlets. The release is anticipated for as soon as the end of the month.
While many reports have focused on the competition Notify would be to news services like Google Alerts, the application is broader than that. Notify will aggregate all notifications from other apps or websites that a users subscribes to, such as breaking news from USA Today, Weather alerts from The Weather Channel, notifications that someone shared your Tweet, and of course, updates from your Facebook app.
In addition to a newsfeed of notifications, it appears that the user can filter notifications by provider/app or create specific categories of notifications such as music, news, or social media. It also appears notifications from a single provider can be filtered into “stations” such as election news from Huffington Post.
The potential for Notify to disrupt the industry is huge. Facebook already dominates the app world and according to comScore, the company has the top smartphone app by total time spent by almost half (48%) of its massive user base and is in the top three for almost 80% of its users. It is also the top mobile app by unique visitors followed closely by Facebook Messenger at #3.
Notify looks to take even more time away from other apps by aggregating the most important information released by those apps, and putting it all under one roof. No longer do users need to open each individual app or visit individual websites to view or follow up with those notifications. And while the operating systems iOS and Android themselves have some functionality of aggregating notifications, Notify appears much more robust in targeting and customizing what news and notifications you see.
At least initially, Notify might help media publishers who already heavily depend on third-parties to drive traffic to their sites. Long gone are the days of subscription based news. Spanish publishers found out the hard way when they tried to tax Google for using their content in its news aggregation service. Assuming Facebook’s huge user base embraces Notify, the potential to link to and drive more traffic to publisher content is big. And of course they can sell sponsored notifications similar to sponsored posts in its newsfeed.
However, publishers make money with ads sold on their own properties and are becoming more and more dependent on a competitor for their user base. Some unspoken concerns are related to users never leaving Facebook and how outside content is displayed that may affect publishers’ advertising in both viewability and effectiveness. And at what point does Facebook start creating its own content? Ultimately, is the internet being replaced by platforms?
Right now there’s a lot to be excited about with Notify. But most won’t be willing to take on the underlying concerns with the giant. Either way, this can be a huge game changer in the industry and only time will tell which way it goes.
