Facebook Bets Big on ‘Stories.’ What If They’re a Fad?
The social network has been here before with live video.
Eyeballs are fickle.
Photographer: Christophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images
In this cloudy year for Facebook Inc., it’s crystal clear that the company is smashing the gas pedal all the way down for “stories,” the short photo-and-video diaries that Snapchat pioneered and Facebook’s Instagram copied a couple of years ago.
Stories are everywhere now at Facebook. Instagram and Facebook put people’s stories at the very top of the apps so people can’t help but click on them. On Wednesday, the company opened its doors wide for advertising in the Facebook app’s version of the story format. Messenger and WhatsApp have stories, too. The company is trying hard to persuade businesses to tailor their marketing pitches for stories and spread them across Facebook and Instagram.