Facebook to open up Instant Articles to all publishers worldwide from 12 March

Starting March 12, Facebook will be opening up the Instant Articles program to all publishers around the world. This move also falls in line with the company’s upcoming F8 Conference wherein Facebook might unveil some new products or announcements as well. Until now, many publishers posted links from their respective website on Facebook which brought in a lot of traffic, but this same process took much longer on a smartphone, approximately 7-8 seconds. “Media organizations and journalists are an integral part of Facebook, and we’re committed to delivering products that will create the best experience for publishers and their readers”, says Josh Roberts, Product Manager at Facebook. The company believes that they built Instant Articles to solve a specific problem that is slow loading times on the mobile web creating a problematic experience for people reading news on their phones. By offering Instant Articles to all publishers, it makes it easier for publishers to reach their audiences on Facebook. With this move, Facebook aims for faster loading content and will hence, encourage users to spend more time on its network as well. Roberts also said, “Opening up Instant Articles will allow any publisher to tell great stories, that load quickly, to people all over the world. With Instant Articles, they can do this while retaining control over the experience, their ads and their data.” Facebook wants to connect people to the stories, posts, videos or photos that matter most to them.