More than 20 nations in sub-Saharan Africa will soon be able to use Meta’s Facebook Reels app for iOS and Android. New tools for creating and watching Facebook Reels, as well as more places to view and make them, are also being introduced by Meta.
Prior to this introduction, Reels was available on Facebook in the following countries: India, Mexico, Canada, and the United States. It is now available across sub-Saharan Africa in the following countries: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, and Tanzania.
Commenting on the launch Nunu Ntshingila, Regional Director for sub-Saharan Africa at Meta says, “We’ve seen that video now accounts for almost all of the time people spend on Facebook and Instagram, and Reels is our fastest-growing content format by far. This is why we’re focused on making Reels the best way for creators to get discovered, connect with their audience, and earn money. We also want to make it fun and easy for people to find and share relevant and entertaining content.”
In addition, Meta offers a number of ways for creators to make money off of their work. As part of Meta’s $1 billion creator investment, the Reels Play bonus program (bit.ly/3BI6L0W) is designed to pay eligible creators up to $35,000 per month based on the views of their eligible reels. To ensure that more people can benefit from the bonus program, it will be rolled out to a wider range of countries in the near future.
As part of the launch, Meta is also launching brand suitability controls, including Publisher Lists, Blocklists, Inventory Filters and Delivery Reports for Banner and Sticker Ads in Facebook Reels in every region they are available, giving advertisers more control over how their ads appear in places they don’t consider suitable for their brand or campaign. Additionally, Meta has been testing full-screen and immersive ads in between Facebook Reels since October of last year, and will roll them out to more places around the world over the coming months. Just like with organic content on Facebook, people can comment, like, view, save, share and skip them.
