by Jim Thompson, RedState:
Before Twitter and Google made deep cuts in personnel, Meta, formerly known as Facebook, cut 11,000 employees from its payroll in late 2022 and issued a hiring freeze. The company lost $9.4 billion in the first quarter of 2022 as it continues to firehose money at Zuckerberg’s pet, “Metaverse.” And advertising revenue has decreased as recession fears heat up in 2023.
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What changed Meta’s calculus was the growing popularity of the ChiCom app, TikTok. TikTok creators have advanced, growing shares of online viewership, while Meta saw its daily active users decline for the first time in 18 years. I wrote about a former Google employee who posted videos of no more than a few minutes, showing her “day in her life” at Google. One of her videos had 2.5 million views. That’s an astounding amount of viewership–when compared to popular Facebook pages that might generate several thousand views–and with it, the potential for ad revenue.
Meta, which owns WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, decided to push for more creation rather than curate content. Meta reached out to BuzzFeed and agreed to pay nearly $10 million to BuzzFeed to create content. Depending on the generation or demographics, BuzzFeed might be well-known or unknown. BuzzFeed has created viral content like listicles and quizzes, and is also known for being a bottom-dwelling, garbage-in, garage-out site.
For instance, BuzzFeed lamented that:
men are looking for Jennifer Lawrence’s nude pictures online
and then posted this:
“DaBaby’s Nudes Allegedly Leaked Online And I Just Want to Thank Santa Clause For Coming Early This Year”
BuzzFeed is nothing if not consistent trash. BuzzFeed’s new partnership will, apparently, encompass the creation of viral content that users will flock to–much like users flock to TikTok for 30 seconds of nonsense. Or log on to watch a “day in the life” of a Google employee.
Admittedly, I am not in Meta’s or TikTok’s target market. Although my wife constantly shows me videos of puppies and cute kids, I haven’t the time or the inclination to search for that type of content myself. Many people do. Meta is banking on its user base of 2 billion to be ready for more useless content.
