Facebook expands Ad Breaks to 14 more countries, launches Watch globally on desktop

Facebook announced Thursday it is rolling out Ad Breaks to 14 more markets, bringing the total number of countries with access to the 15-second in-stream ads to 40. It is also launching Watch globally on desktop and Facebook Lite.

The company shared a long list of Watch announcements — from the original programs it is renewing in 2019 to stats that show more than 75 million daily Watch visitors spend an average of 20 minutes on the video platform.

Why you should care

The expansion of Facebook’s video Ad Breaks — and by extension the global roll-out of Watch — signals the company is putting more of its efforts on video and hoping advertisers will follow suit.

With the global roll-out of Watch on desktop and Facebook Lite, video advertisers running international campaigns on Facebook will have access to larger audiences as users will be able to access the video platform beyond their mobile app. According to Facebook, more than 75 million daily visitors spend, on average, 20 minutes on Watch.

“We’re seeing that people are regularly coming back to catch up on the videos they care about and watching for longer periods of time,” said Facebook’s head of video Fidji Simo.

Facebook first began testing video Ad Breaks as early as February, 2017, but only recently expanded the ad unit to more advertisers. In August, Facebook opened up Ad Breaks to Pages with 10,000 followers that have generated more than 30,000 one-minute video views during the past two months. At the time, the video ad units were still reserved to only five countries: the U.S., the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia. A month later, the 15-second in-stream video ad unit were rolled out to 21 more countries across Europe, Central and South America and Asia in September.

On Thursday, Facebook extended the list of countries with Ad Breaks to include:

1. Bangladesh

2. Hong Kong

3. India

4. Indonesia

5. Italy

6. Jordan

7. Malaysia

8. Philippines

9. Saudi Arabia

10. Singapore

11. South Africa

12. South Korea

13. Taiwan

14. UAE

More on Facebook Watch

1. Facebook is testing a new darker background for videos viewed on Watch via a mobile device.

2. The company has renewed four original programs for a second season on Watch: Five Points, Huda Boss, Sorry for Your Loss and Sacred Lies.

3. Facebook says it will continue to introduce new ways for publishers and creators to make make money on the platform in 2019, with plans to launch Ad Breaks in even more countries. It also says it will begin testing new Ad Break placements, such as livestreams from its gaming community.