Facebook has finally launched Instant Articles in Asia with the help of 50 news publishers. Instant Articles is a new feature that makes it possible for users to read supported content quickly without having to leave Facebook.
It's coming to iOS for now, but the Android rollout of the feature in Asia is expected to be ready by the end of this year. The new expansion comes just two weeks after Facebook launched its Instant Articles in India on Google's mobile platform.
"Expanding Instant Articles to Asia is a significant milestone for the product and for each of our early launch partners," Andy Mitchell, director of global media partnerships at Facebook, said in a blog post.
The social media giant has over 500 million users in Asia, and as such, the release of Instant Articles in the region will no doubt increase the reach of the service in a big way. However, things are not perfect since some content publishers believe they will not make enough revenue from the service.
This is due to Facebook's advertising policy, but the company is looking into making some changes to make things better for content publishers.
Here are some of the publishers submitting content to Facebook's Instant Articles:
- CCTVNEWS in China
- Ming Pao Daily News in Hong Kong
- Aajtak, India Today, Hindustan Times, The Quint and The Indian Express in India
- Kompas.com and Merdeka.com in Indonesia
- SBS News in Korea
- Sin Chew Daily in Malaysia
- ABS-CBN News, Rappler, GMA Network, INQUIRER.net and GMA News in Philippines
- The Straits Times in Singapore
- Next Magazine Taiwan, Apple Daily Taiwan, ETtoday and Chinatimes.com in Taiwan
- Kom Chad Luek in Thailand
- VnExpress and WebTretho in Vietnam
There are several more, but they have yet to start publishing content. Facebook says this will begin soon, but did not give a specific timeframe.
As a reminder, Facebook first debuted Instant Articles back in May in the United States for the Apple iOS platform. The company later released it on Android as well, and so far, the service seems to be a success.
