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Facebook Live Now Has Ads & Instagram Launches Own Snapchat Stories

At least in test form, for the time being, Facebook Live now allows the inclusion of ads after 5 minutes of live broadcasting. Meanwhile, Instagram has announced a familiar looking feature.

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Facebook Live Now Features Video Ad Breaks

Facebook have been quoted in numerous places as saying, "We're running a small test where a group of publishers have the option to insert a short ad break in their Facebook Live videos."

The ads will come from already running Facebook campaigns and the brands being advertised can be vetted by the Live video hosts. The hosts will also be able to disable ads from their live streams altogether.

What is unknown, at this stage, is whether all viewers will see ads simultaneously or they will be user tailored.

Facebook has been gearing up for launching this feature for months, reportedly even paying Web celebrities and popular publishers to Live stream in order to build an audience for marketers.

And given the explosion of interest in video content in recent times, it is no surprise that these ads have arrived.

The only surprise is that they actually happened, because they go somewhat against Mark Zuckerberg's feelings about video ads and he has delayed. He previously said that they taint the user's experience.

But the potential monetary value must hold too much sway when you have shareholders to please.

Snapchat-like Update To Instagram

In other Zuckerberg/Facebook related news, Instagram (now developed by Facebook) has launched a new feature which looks suspiciously familiar to Snapchat.

Given that Snapchat's video views have doubled to 10Bn (yes, BILLION) views per day, worldwide, in just one calendar year, it was clear Instagram needed to do something new. That is besides becoming a haven for product giveaways and upset longstanding users with a new timeline algorithm.

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So Instagram have included their own Stories feature in a bid to stimulate usage. Don't they look similar to Snapchat?

Anyway you can see a video of the new update on their blog post, here.

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