Facebook: 200M people have watched their Look Back videos
The week-old sentimental video product has proved a big hit with people on Facebook, company executives say.
For its 10th anniversary, Facebook gave each of its members a one-minute video set to music that featured their top social-networking moments. The company said Tuesday that nearly 200 million people have watched their "Look Back" videos.
The revelation came from Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, on Tuesday evening during a question-and-answer session at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference.
"It was amazing," Sandberg said of the response to Look Back. "Almost 200 million people watched [their Look Back video], and 50 percent of people who watched their own video, shared it. It ... showed the power of the Facebook brand."
Facebook Look Back debuted one week ago on February 4, 2014 as a sentimental way for members to relive their history on the social network. Videos were made available to all of Facebook's 1.23 billion-member audience who had enough available content to pull from. Those with less content received a "thank you" card instead.
Sandberg was joined at the investor-geared technology conference by Facebook Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman. The pair reiterated many of the talking points that the company discussed in its fourth-quarter earnings calls with analysts and investors earlier this month. Ebersman echoed CEO Mark Zuckerberg's remarks around the next 10 years for Facebook, the first several of which, he said, will be focused on building more experiences -- read: single-purpose apps -- for sharing media of all types with audiences big and small.
"As we imagine a world where we build off the foundation we have with Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, and improve those products and bring other products forward, we want to make it easy for people to have the sharing experiences that they want to have," Ebersman said.
The particular statement was made in response to a question about teen usage, making it clear that Facebook will go after the next generation of social networkers with applications designed to be better suited to their singular desires.