Facebook is currently testing auto-playing videos on mobile apps, aiming to bring the business model of this social network with 1.15 billion users closer to television video advertising.
According to an article on Facebook's official blog on Thursday, these videos will appear silently in the Facebook user’s "newsfeed," but will expand and play audio when clicked.
Facebook stated that during this test, only videos posted by individual users, celebrities, and musicians can auto-play. However, the company pointed out that it "will experiment with ways for marketers to use this feature in the future."
The test involves only a small number of American users, but it may spark investors' expectations for Facebook's video advertisements. Several media reports recently claimed that Facebook plans to charge brand marketers between $1 million and $2.4 million to display 15-second auto-playing video ads on its social network.
Facebook's stock price hit a record high on Thursday at $45.62 per share. Investors are looking forward to new revenue sources such as video ads and ads in the Instagram photo-sharing app.
By conducting a small-scale test before selling auto-playing ads to advertisers, Facebook can ensure that the technology works well and investigate users' reactions.
A Facebook spokesperson said, "Adding videos to the newsfeed will significantly change the user experience on Facebook. The company wants to test the results within a small range first."
Auto-playing videos will be available on both Android and iOS versions of the Facebook app.
This spokesperson mentioned that based on internal test results, auto-playing ads seem not to severely reduce battery life. As long as users scroll the video content out of the screen while browsing the newsfeed, the video will stop playing. Additionally, users can also choose to turn off the auto-play function.
Auto-play only applies to videos that users upload directly to Facebook. During the test, embedded videos from external sites like YouTube cannot auto-play.
A Facebook spokesperson stated that the company believes auto-playing videos will not significantly impact the data usage or costs for smartphone users.