Facebook is said to be working on a Flipboard-style news reader. However, it's unclear when the company will launch the news reader.
Flipboard is a smartphone and tablet app that brings together stories from multiple sources and lets users swipe to flip through articles. Users can also customize the app to get news on sports, technology, science, space and more.
According to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report, Facebook has been working on a news reader for over a year and the product resembles Flipboard.
Earlier this year, Facebook unveiled a redesign of the news-feed portion of its main web portal that features a more noticeable display of content from news publishers. At an event to unveil the redesign, Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, said he wanted Facebook to be "the best personalized newspaper in the world."
Reading news on-the-go on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets has increased a lot in the recent years. Flipboard has over 50 million active users and Zuckrberg's comments definitely hint that the company has something in the pipeline to capitalize in the news reading market space.
Josh Elman, a venture capitalist at Greylock Partners who previously worked on products for Facebook and Twitter said (via WSJ), "The opportunity to own the place where people go for long-form reading is a very large opportunity, especially for advertising."
However, the WSJ report also says that consumers are spending increasing amounts of time with mobile devices, and the Facebook users often use the application for a short time. The launch of a new news reader may tempt users to stay on the website for a longer period.
Flipboard definitely attracts users when it comes to get the latest news at the tip of their fingers. We don't know when Facebook will launch the new service, but it will definitely be a worthy competitor to Flipboard.
