Is Facebook's commitment to podcast waning?

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Facebook is reportedly losing interest in the podcast scene barely a year into its venture. According to Bloomberg, while Facebook is seeing good engagement for its audio products, its parent company Meta is turning its attention to the metaverse and short-video projects, amidst increasing competition. Industry executives who work with Facebook reportedly told Bloomberg that it is emphasising other initiatives in conversations with podcast partners as well, including events in the metaverse and online shopping.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Facebook for a comment.

Last June, Facebook rolled out Live Audio Rooms and podcasts to bring social audio experiences to Facebook. It also said then that it would start testing its other audio products such as central listening destination and background audio listening for videos. Additionally, Facebook sponsored an industry conference in the US, Podcast Movement, last August, but did not sponsor nor attend the conference's event last month, Bloomberg reported. Facebook has also reportedly not renewed some of its Live Audio Room deals.

Facebook's move comes in contrast to a rising trend in podcasting. Findings from Insider Intelligence indicate that the audio demand has increased in in 2022, the number of monthly US podcast listeners will rise by 6.1% year on year. This is largely driven by younger consumers aged 18 to 34.

Additionally, Tech Crunch previously reported that YouTube has plans to create a future podcasts homepage on YouTube.com with other monetising aspects. According to news published by Podnews, YouTube detailed its podcasts roadmap, and said it plans to centralise podcasts on a new homepage at YouTube.com/podcasts. The document suggested that YouTube will, in the future, feature audio ads sold by Google and its partners. The document also mentioned metrics and the ability to integrate YouTube data into industry-standard podcast measurement platforms.

Meanwhile, Spotify has been making heavy investments into the podcasting space with multi-million dollar deals with content creators, tech companies and advertising platforms. It has made its intent on growing its in house capabilities clear. Last year, Spotify saw a 34% growth YoY on the number of distinct podcast users aged 15 to 44 years on its platform, according to a report by podcasts publisher Ranieri & Co.

Twitter also made its foray into the podcast scene last year with the launch of Twitter Spaces. Clubhouse, a live social audio app, also launched a feature this year that would allow users to listed to live podcasts on the web, without having to create an account. At the same time, several brands such as DBS, Good Dog People, IKEA and ZALORA joined in on the podcast scene with their own podcast channels.

Meanwhile, Ranieri & Co's report also revealed that 78% of podcast listeners do not mind hearing ads on their stream. This in turn may lead to an increase in ad spend for podcasts. For instance, a 2021 study done by IAB, in collaboration with PwC, showed that podcast advertising revenues in the US climbed to US$842 million in 2020, from its US$708 million mark in 2019.

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