400 mn using Facebook Watch, now available on desktop

 San Francisco: Over 400 million people are using video-on-demand service Facebook Watch monthly and 75 million people daily who spend at least one minute on Watch, the social networking platform has announced.

Launched in the US in 2017, the video service allows users to enjoy videos from different genres, including entertainment, sports and news in their personalised "Watch Feed" that carries a collection of recent videos from the pages they follow.

"Well, 2018 was a big year for Facebook Watch. Watch launched in every country around the world, the platform opened to videos from all Pages, and we debuted dozens of Facebook Originals," Fidji Simo, Head of Video, said in a blog post on Thursday.

In August, Facebook rolled out Watch globally on mobile and now, the service is also available on desktop and Facebook Lite, the company announced.

On an average, 75 million daily visitors spend more than 20 minutes in Watch.

"Since the Summer we have been working to bring 'Watch Party' to everyone on Facebook.

"We've seen it really take off -- there have been more than 12 million Watch Parties in Groups alone, and Watch Parties garner eight times more comments than regular videos in Groups," said Facebook.

The company is also working to unify the video experience across Facebook.

Right now, people can find videos on Facebook in a number of different places -- Watch, News Feed, Search, Pages and more.

"We want to make the experience of watching video feel immersive, no matter where you discovered it. As part of this effort, we'll be testing a few things in the coming months," informed Simo.

The company also announced that "Ad Breaks" are now available to eligible Pages in 40 countries around the world.

"We'll bring Ad Breaks to video creators in more countries around the world, and will test new Ad Breaks placements, like in livestreams from gaming creators," Simo said, adding that the company would provide advertisers with more options to tailor their video ad campaigns and connect with target audience.