Facebook Instant Articles Launched In Asia With Over 50 Publishers

Facebook on Wednesday announced the beta launch of Instant Articles across Asia, with early launch partners including over 50 media across the region.

“Expanding Instant Articles to Asia is a significant milestone for the product and for each of our early launch partners,” said Andy Mitchell, Director of Global Media Partnerships, Facebook. "Instant Articles has been designed with extensive feedback from publishers, and we’re excited to bring this collaboration to our publishing partners in Asia to help them distribute fast, interactive articles to their readers in the Facebook app."

The press release said that at present, the average news story takes an average of eight seconds to load. Instant Articles makes the reading experience as much as ten times faster than standard mobile web articles.

In addition to a faster experience, Instant Articles also brings a number of interactive features that allow publishers to present their stories in new ways. Moreover, Asian publishers will be able to sell ads in their articles and keep the revenue, or they can choose to use Facebook’s Audience Network to monetise unsold inventory. They will also have the ability to track data and traffic through their current analytics tools.

“We worked closely with our early media partners in Asia to begin rolling out Instant Articles across the region. Internationally, publishers are already sharing thousands of Instant Articles on Facebook each day, and looking ahead we're excited to partner with more publishers in Asia to bring the Instant Articles experience to more people,” said Ken Cheung, Head of Media Partnerships, APAC, Facebook.

Instant Articles is now available to all iPhone users globally and the Android version will launch later this year, with a small public beta available now. Following the beta launch, Facebook said, Instant Articles will be open to a wider group of publishers in the months to come.