Facebook is shutting down its podcast and audio services to better focus on AR and VR, among others.

The service of Facebook will disappear just a year after being launched. The parent company Meta recently confirmed to Bloomberg that it wanted to cease its activity around audio: podcast, Soundbites and audio hub are concerned. It will no longer be possible for podcasters to add new episodes on Facebook this week and the feature will be completely removed on June 3. The hub and Soundbites will shut down in the “coming weeks” and Live Audio Rooms are absorbed by Facebook Live.

Facebook closes its podcast and audio services

A Meta spokesperson called the move a reorganization of efforts. This is to allow Meta to “focus on the experiences that make the most sense”.

to better focus on AR and VR, especially

There were a number of hints in recent weeks that Meta had little interest in podcasts and wanted to focus on bigger products like Facebook’s main News Feed and InstagramReels. There was, however, a good user response to audio services, as a Meta spokesperson explained to Bloomberg in mid-April, but sources in the American medium claimed at the same time that the company was more interested in the metaverse. and shopping when she interacted with her podcast partners. In other words, Meta’s current interests in AR and VR and competitors like TikTok have shifted the Menlo Park firm’s focus away from audio.

Facebook also faces rather fierce competition in the audio services market. Podcast service operators like Apple and Spotify were already significant threats, and there’s a surge to copy Clubhouse in 2021. Meta then found itself up against services like Twitter Spaces and Reddit Talk. There was no guarantee that Facebook would manage to stand out, even with such a popular platform as its own and such extensive resources at its disposal.

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