What Facebook’s (reported) video chat device could mean for its ad business

Following a Bloomberg report, we reported Tuesday that Facebook is working on a couple of consumer hardware devices that could have a dramatic impact on the way users — and potentially marketers — engage with the social platform.

According to Bloomberg sources, one product is a standalone voice assistant in the vein of the Amazon Echo and Google Home products. The other is a video chat device with a 13- to 15-inch touchscreen that runs on the Android operating system. Facebook’s goal is to keep people connected to and engaging with the platform. With engagement comes data that can be used for ad targeting. Facebook already collects all kinds of data about users both on Facebook’s own platforms including Instagram and Messenger, as well as around the web with its Like and Share buttons on millions of sites. So what could possibly be next?

Based on this one sentence in the Bloomberg article, we can begin to speculate:

The video chat device will feature a wide-angle camera lens, microphones, and speakers for video conferencing that are all powered by artificial intelligence to boost performance.

[Read the full article on MarTech Today.]

About The Author

As Third Door Media’s paid media reporter, Ginny Marvin writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She provides search marketing and demand generation advice for ecommerce companies and can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.