Is this the end of podcasts? Facebook seems to think so. Just 10 months after launching podcast support features, Facebook has removed them. Perhaps the platform thinks that the time for podcasts is over already.
According to Bloomberg, the tech giant has started removing podcasts from the site and intends to be clear of them from June 3rd. This week, users have been blocked from adding podcasts to the service, and the platform’s short-form audio feature, Soundbites will also be removed.
This will be no real bother to podcasters and marketers. No one should be relying on Facebook for their podcasting needs, and no one should be relying on Facebook for their income or numbers. Facebook was far down on the list of who people were going to for their podcasts, behind chiefly Spotify, then Apple, YouTube, and Audible. However, podcast creators are rightly angered by the sudden switch in Facebook, which was prompted by no statement or warning.
Why is this?
It’s more likely that Facebook has decided the way forward for them is to solely focus on virtual reality and its Metaverse, which hasn’t had any glowing reviews so far.
In fact, most news that comes out about the Metaverse in its current state is shockingly bad, like the story doing the rounds of a UK Channel 4 journalist who went into the Metaverse and was immediately met with sexual harassment and racial discrimination.
Despite this, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to think the Metaverse is the future, and maybe he’s decided podcasts are old hat.
Or, it could just as easily have something to do with Zuckerberg’s statement concerning the company’s most recent earnings.
“Based on the strong revenue growth we saw in 2021, we kicked off a number of 2 multi-year projects to accelerate some of our longer-term investments, especially in our AI infrastructure, business platform, and Reality Labs. These investments are going to be important for our success and growth over time so I continue to believe we should see them through. But with our current business growth levels, we’re now planning to slow the pace of some of our investments.”
It seems podcasting is one of those investments that he plans to draw back on.
