Facebook has came-out with a Instant Articles in India collaborating with India Today, Quint, Hindustan Times, The Indian Express and Aaajtak. The company is planning to bring add more publishers in the future, with a target to build a ‘new publishing ecosystem’.
‘Instant Articles’ is a product that was earlier launched in the US and European countries, designed for the markets with less or limited internet connectivity. This will enable readers with 2G connectivity (or low connectivity) to browse articles without a glitch using Facebook.
The product will also proffer tools of story-telling collection, which can be used by the publishers to generate more articles that are rich and even more attractive. Posts of ‘Selected Publishers’ will appear on news feed along with hi-resolution images and interactive features like auto-play videos, maps and audio captions.
Andy Mitchel, Director, News and Global Media Partnerships, Facebook said “The idea is to enhance people’s experience on Facebook to read articles and to solve problem of people consuming content on Facebook due to limited or slow connectivity in emerging markets which present great opportunity.”
According to Mitchel, Facebook will also monitor and test the product after readers start engaging into the platform, and will further tie-up with “high-quality” publishers in the future.
