Facebook Messenger CEO Vows More Scrutiny of Platform's Use
19 October 2017 - 5:25AM
Dow Jones News
By Georgia Wells
LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. -- Facebook Inc. should be more proactive
in detecting malicious actors on its platform, the head of its
Messenger business said Wednesday.
Facebook and other internet companies are embroiled in
controversy over the use of their services by what they have said
were Russian actors trying to manipulate U.S. public opinion around
the presidential election. Facebook only last month identified
Russian-backed accounts that bought advertisements on divisive
issues, and the company said it is hiring more moderators and
taking other steps to increase transparency.
"In the future we need to increase our level of scrutiny and
challenge ourselves to understand the ways people might use a
platform in the ways it wasn't designed for," David Marcus said at
The Wall Street Journal's WSJD.Live technology conference.
Some of the 470 accounts Facebook identified as Russian-backed
lured followers in part by communicating using the Messenger app.
Mr. Marcus said his understanding is that "a very small number" of
the total operated in this way, noting that only individual users,
not Facebook pages, can directly reach other users on
Messenger.
Facebook removed the 470 Russia-backed accounts last month for
violating its policy prohibiting accounts from misrepresenting
their origin.
Mr. Marcus's team now is trying to turn the popularity of
Messenger into revenue. That effort has some urgency: Facebook this
year said it had reached the upper limit of the number of ads it
wants to stuff into the news feed of its primary app. Now Facebook
needs other ways of making money to avoid a broader slowdown in
revenue growth.
Already, Messenger has been bringing in some revenue. In July,
Facebook started showing advertisements inside Messenger;
advertisers can use such ads to drive traffic to their websites or
open messaging threads between users and companies.
To ensure the ads don't turn off Messenger users, Mr. Marcus
said his team monitors engagement to see if users return less
frequently.
"So far so good," Mr. Marcus said. "I'm cautiously optimistic
that we can make this work."
Facebook's other messaging app, WhatsApp, said in September that
it will eventually charge companies to use some future features.
The tools help businesses communicate with customers on the
app.
Messenger is more popular in affluent markets like the U.S. and
Europe, while WhatsApp is more popular in developing countries.
The messaging apps each have 1.3 billion monthly users, and the
teams behind them could learn from each other. What Mr. Marcus and
his team are doing with monetization on Messenger could be a road
map for how Whatsapp could monetize.
"We share everything, we're a very open company," Mr. Marcus
said.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 18, 2017 14:10 ET (18:10 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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