Which vertical should be the focus for Facebook Watch? Why?

Question

Which vertical should be the focus for Facebook Watch? Why?

Asked at Meta (Facebook) over a year ago

760 views

Asked at

760 views

How to answer Product Strategy questions

Interview Guide

Top Meta (Facebook) interview questions

What is your favorite product? Why?89 answers | 263k views
How would you design a bicycle renting app for tourists?62 answers | 82.5k views
Build a product to buy and sell antiques.54 answers | 66.8k views
See Meta (Facebook) PM Interview Questions

Top Product Strategy interview questions

Invite members
Invite by email

Add another

Lokesh Kumar R · Answer 1 · 2021-07-11T18:17:08+0000

Clarification:

Do we have a specific goal in mind or any particular OKR this quarter that we are thinking about this? Youre are the PM. So you choose.

How are we performing with respect to Facebook Watch? How are the users reacting with the existing verticals ?How are the engagement metrics doing? So far the metrics are doing fine. However we wanted to improve our stand.

Okay with the above understanding, I would like to proceed into answering,

The way I would like to go about is by sharing my understanding of the product and feature. Next would like to understand what are the available options and finally with the users trend in mind would like to analyse the options. Finally would come up with one suggestion on the Vertical to be focussed.

Product Description;

Facebook is a Social Media Giant that aims at bringing the World together and empower the people to form a more meaningful community. Facebook Watch is one such feature as a part of the FB offerings aimed at connecting users with their personalities through Live, other user created short clips. It also has music clips along to this. Like any other features of FB, this too has recommendations that offers personalized suggestions to the users through their activity. Users also get to engage with each other through comments, sharing posts etc.

The strength of the feature is that this has a Social Graph attached to it apart from the usual Creater and Follower relation. The Major comeptition for the current stage is TikTok. While depending on the future vertical choice, there will be other competitions for us.

Possible Choices:

When we think about Facebook Watch verticals, the following options are the verticals that we can focus on:

Live Video Segment:
- The users get to interact with their favourite celebrities, or creators. This feature is used by different people differently. For example, Gamers use this to share their Gaming Skills by doing Live videos of Gameplay. While, few celeb use this as a way to interact with their followers. Major Competition for us in this segment will be Youtube.
- Facebook can partner with active gamers to incentivize them to interact more on FB and helping them in curating which type of content for when
Music Videos:
- Facebook can do two types of Music Videos. One, is partnering with Music Producers and Orchestra to produce Original Albums as a part of FB
- Two, in this COVID Social Distancing Period, They can try organising Virtual Concerts through Partnerships.
Films
- FB Originals: FB can partner with Production houses to create new films/ TV Series under FB Originals and create content for users. This postions them against Subscription Platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime.
- Movies/TV Series: They can also get streaming rights for highly specualted content using the existing data and stream videos related to this in Watch. This once again postions them against Youtube, Netflix, Prim, etc..
- Documetries: They can try out Documentry Genres as well through Partnerships with NatGeo or other Groups in the domain.
Other Segment:
- Educational Related: This is the genre where users watch interesting short clips related to Education. This can be done by FB using the data that it has on people and can start providing Courses on a particular type. This would create a new stream of revenue to what FB has now. This also positions them against firms like Udacity, Coursera, Youtube.
- Facebook How: This can be a way of FB partnering with existing active creators/ their own production house to create short clips addressing things like WikiHow through Videos
- Business Celebrities: Similar to Lives, here Fb can partner with celebs and incentivize them to interact more with their Short users through FB watch using short clips.

Verticals	Opportunity Size	Impact	Allignment with Mission	Cost
Live Segment	Low	Medium	High	Medium
Music Originals	Medium as Albums trends are quite old now	Low	Low	High
Music Virtual Concerts	Medium as Virtual Concerts tend to be at peak during COVID times. Post that very few people would still prefer VirtualConcerts	Medium	Medium	High
Films FB Originals	High	Medium	Low	High
Films Streaming	High	Medium	Low	High
Films Documetries	Low	Medium	Low	High
Others Education	High	Medium	High	Medium
Others FB How	Medium	High	High	Medium
Others Short Clips	High	High	High	Medium

So from the above Prioritization,I would like to prioritize Partnering with Business Celebrities and focus specifically on creating short clips on various things. This would position us against Youtube and would also help our users to interact and engage with us more hours.

productmanager1644 · Answer 2 · 2021-03-26T23:29:45+0000

CLARIFY:
1. Is there a specific goal in mind? For example, increasing average user engagement, increasing user pool, etc? You choose.
2. Is there a specific user we want to focus on? You choose.
3. US v. international? Can focus on US.
BACKGROUND: Facebook Watch is a video streaming service owned by Facebook. It offers personalized recommendations on videos to watch (based on popularity and user engagement). It has a Home Page of videos it recommends. It also offers shows, live videos and music videos. It allows a user to save videos and see a personalized Watchlist.
GOAL: Increase the usage of Facebook Watch.
COMPETITORS: In the video space, there are a few competitors to think about. As we think about strategic verticals, we should think about who FaceBook Watch wants to position itself against.
1. Subscription Platforms: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu+ etc. There are multiple subscription platforms that offer access to movies or TV shows or both.
2. Youtube: Video upload platform that generally is used to watch shorter clips and music videos but also offers free or paid free movies / TV shows.
3. Social Media Platforms: Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat are other social media platforms with video content capabilities. Think stories, lives, or permanent video content.
USERS: If we think about existing Facebook users, there are 4 tiers of users we can focus on from a Facebook Watch standpoint. I'd like to focus on verticals that will draw in non-users and rare users of Facebook Watch. Note - these users focus on the people watching Facebook Watch videos not the creators.
1. Non User: Has never used FaceBook Watch. Likely has lower engagement on Facebook in general.
2. Rare User: Potentially watches something 1-2 every 2 weeks.
3. Medium User: Watches 1-2 videos each week.
4. Power User: Watches 3-5 videos each week.
STRATEGIC VERTICALS: I'd like to break down verticals by type of video.
1. Movies: Currently, there is no movie section so these verticals would be brand new.
  1. New Movie Section: Facebook could partner with production studios to bring in content across multiple movie genres similar to Netflix, Amazon Video, etc. This content would position Facebook against other subscription services.
  2. Facebook Movies Originals: Facebook could expand its production aspect (already has Facebook TV Show Originals) to include movies. Again, this movie would position Facebook against subscription giants. Netflix Originals and Amazon Original films come to mind.
2. TV Shows: Generally, expanding TV show content would position Facebook against the subscription services.
  1. Everyday Popular Genres: Facebook Watch could expand the show offerings it has. Right now, the TV shows listed look like a long list of TV shows but there is no classification of the type. Facebook could survey its users or review data on current popular TV shows to think about genres they like and focus on expanding into those categories - partnering with studios to bring their content into the paltform. (I'd also recommend adding classifications of show types to the UX).
  2. Niche Genres: Given that Facebook has a lot of user data, Facebook could review the genres of videos its users like. If it notices certain patterns particularly around niche genres of videos (ex. videos of fishing or mountain biking, etc.), it could focus on building out video content pertaining to that niche.
3. Short Clips: Short clips would position Facebook more so against Youtube and social media platforms generally.
  1. Educational Classes: Facebook could partner with educational institutions to host educational content for its users based on the data it has re. current user interest - think online classes like Coursera. For example, if it knows that many of its users also have an interest in Computer Science, it could start building an educational video content focused in that area and slowly expand. This work would not only position Facebook against Youtube but also educational platforms like Coursera and EdX.
  2. How Tos: Facebook could begin partnering with businesses or influencers or even create its own content on how to do XYZ. For example, how to build a resume, how to change a car tire, etc.
  3. Influencer and Business Partnerships: Facebook could partner with popular influencers or businesses and incentivize them to create more Facebook Watch video content or lives. For example, if Facebook sees that an influencer has an active Facebook page, it could pay them to create Facebook Watch videos or provide data that tells them pgs with X number of Facebook Watch videos leads to an increase in customer engagement, etc. It could even think about producing content with the influencer or business via Facebook Studios like it does for Facebook Originals.
4. Music Videos:
  1. Music Video Originals: Facebook could partner with popular or upcoming artists to produce original music videos. These videos may at first only be hosted on the Facebook platform.
  2. Virtual Concerts: Facebook could partner with artists and DJs to host live concerts.

PRIORITIZE VERTICALS:

Video Type	Vertical	Impact to Goal	Cost to Facebook Watch
Movies	New Movie Section	Medium	Low
Movies	Facebook Movie Originals	High	High
TV Shows	Everyday Popular Genres	Medium	Low
TV Shows	Niche Genres	Low	Low
Short Clips	Educational Classes	High	Low
Short Clips	How Tos	Medium	Low
Short Clips	Influencer and Business Partnerships	Medium	Low
Music Videos	Music Video Originals	Medium	High
Music Videos	Virtual Concerts	Medium	Medium

MAKE RECOMMENDATION: Given the prioritization, I'd recommend that Facebook Watch think about expanding into the educational classes area and focus on areas of education that its current user base is very interested in. There are a large number of subscription services that are already very popular, so Facebook may have more difficulty pulling users to engage on Facebook Watch. Educational classes could be a differentiator when it comes to various video streaming services because they are generally found on educational platforms like EdX and Coursera. Facebook Watch may be able to get its non or rare users to engage in educational videos. (You would need to do further analysis on the population to really understand what they want from Facebook Watch to confirm.)