The company isnt saying specifically how those numbers have changed during the pandemic , but product lead Paresh Rajwat said there was a really big surge at the beginning of lockdown and social distancing, and that the surge has not subsided as society begins to reopen.
Back in June of last year, the company said that 720 million people were watching at least one minute of Watch content every month.
Rajwat noted that while Watch is built on the social layer of Facebook, with videos shareable across Facebooks many products, the views are happening on Watch itself.
It is super critical for us to have a destination, he said, keeping videos from popular creators and publishers separate from the core Facebook experience of interacting with friends and family.
For example, theres Red Table Talk from Jada Pinkett Smith and family, a talk show that made headlines over the summer for bringing Will Smith and Jada together to discuss their marital issues. Facebook plans to launch another version of Red Table talk in October, Red Table Talk: The Estefans, with Gloria Estefan, her niece Lily and her daughter Emily.
That includes live sports, with 13.7 million people watching the UEFA Champions League final, making it the most popular football broadcast ever on Facebook Watch. And Facebook recently announced that publishers and other businesses will be able to charge for access to live online events, with Facebook taking no fees for the next year.
Looking forward, Rajat said that a big priority is making more and more investment in showing people what they really are interested in.
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