Brief: Facebook unveils Watch, its new video content service

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The news (extracted from The Verge):

• Facebook said today that Watch, its redesigned video platform, will begin rolling out to a small percentage of users tomorrow.
• Watch features original programming financed by Facebook, alongside videos from other creators, in a tab that will become personalized to your interests over time.
• The Watch tab arrives a little over a year after Facebook introduced a dedicated video tab into its main app.

Why it matters:

• Facebook’s strategic drive to provide more video content will see it competing directly with Alphabet’s YouTube Red, Snap’s Discover, Amazon’s Prime, and Netflix.
• In Asia, Facebook will also face-off against regional on-demand services like Hooq, Viddsee, and Iflix – the last of which just raised US$133 million in funding and dominates parts of the Asian market.
• Amazon is expected to make video content available in Singapore shortly following its launch of Prime Now in the city-state last month. Netflix has made growth of its subscription base in the region a strategic priority.