Facebook has announced it will roll out Reels, its answer to the growing popularity of video-based social network TikTok, to more than 150 countries.
The decision to launch the short video format for iOS and Android globally comes more than a year after Facebook's parent company, Meta, launched Reels on Instagram and months after it was first made available on Facebook in the US.
Facebook said it would introduce new creative and editing tools and monetisation options, starting with tests for banner and sticker adds, as part of a major push to make Reels stick.
Popular Reels users are eligible to earn up to $35,000 per month based on the number of users who view their videos as part of Facebook's Reels Play bonus programme, which itself is part of a $1bn outlay by Facebook to pay its biggest creators announced last July.
"Reels is already our fastest growing content format by far, and today we're making it available to everyone on Facebook globally," Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, said. "We want Reels to be the best place for creators to connect with their community and make a living, so we're launching new [monetisation] tools too."
In Association with
"We're adding creative tools to Facebook Reels like Remix, and the ability to create a Reel from an existing story. We're also building video clipping tools so that creators who publish live or long-form, recorded videos can test different formats," he added of the changes to Reels.
Remix allows users to create a Real that includes part of a another user's existing Reels, and Facebook has also introduced Reels of up to 60 seconds in length, and the ability to create drafts, plus it is testing video clipping tools to make it easier for users to test in different formats.
"To give creators more visibility and reach, they can share their Instagram Reels as recommended content on Facebook. We're also rolling out Reels in Facebook Watch and letting people share public Reels to Stories," Zuckerberg said.
The tests for overlay ads will be undertaken by Reels users in the US, Canada and Mexico who are part of its in-stream ads programme before being expanded to other countries next month.
Facebook said the tests would start with two formats: banner ads that appear as a semi-transparent overlay at the bottom of a Facebook Reel, and sticker ads: a static image ad that can be placed by a creator anywhere within their reel.
Testing of Stars -- where users can buy and send "Stars" to support their favourite users -- on Facebook Reels will also commence in the coming weeks.
A number of brand suitability controls including publisher lists, blocklists, inventory filters and delivery reports for banner and sticker ads have also been launched for Reels to give advertisers more control over how their adverts appear.
Facebook has also been testing full-screen and immersive adverts between Facebook Reels since October, and they will be rolled out in the coming months.
The company said it would make Facebook Reels shareable in Stories, the Watch tab, at the top of the news feed, and as suggested content in the feed as well.
(Pic: Facebook/Getty Images)
