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

With new methods of data collection, Facebook could potentially power ads based on what it hears and sees in users' physical worlds.

Ginny Marvin on August 4, 2017 at 10:23 am

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

Ginny Marvin

Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media's Editor-in-Chief, managing day-to-day editorial operations across all of our publications. Ginny writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, she has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.