Facebook News to launch outside US

Facebook News, which aims to create a personalised news feed from more than 200 different publishers, was launched in the US as a limited test in 2019 and expanded nationwide this summer.

The social media giant said that 95% of the traffic delivered by Facebook News to publishers was “incremental to the traffic they already get from News Feed”, and would therefore expand the service internationally.

Facebook News will be launched in multiple countries within the next six months. Facebook said in a statement it was considering the UK, Germany, France, Brazil and India as possible options.

Publishers in each country would be paid by Facebook to ensure content is available on Facebook News, and Facebook is planning on tailoring the news service to each country chosen.

“Innovation is critical to building a sustainable news ecosystem,” a Facebook statement said. “We will keep building new products and making global investments to help the news industry build long-lasting business models.”