<story><title>FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends&apos; posts</title><url>https://old.reddit.com/r/facebook/comments/tvqddc/fb_feed_is_98_suggested_pages_and_barely_any/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fairity</author><text>No, this isn&amp;#x27;t a consequence of the status quo newsfeed algorithm.  This is a consequence of Facebook making a purposeful strategic shift away from in-network content to suggested content.  This strategic shift was highlighted in their last earnings call as a way to compete with TikTok, whose success is partly explained by their focus on suggested content.  On the earnings call, they signaled that they were shifting more to a mix of the two content styles in the coming quarters, but the OP is likely enrolled in some sort of test that is giving them 98%.&lt;p&gt;See the below excerpt from Meta&amp;#x27;s Q2 earnings call:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;One of the main transformations in our business right now is that social feeds are going from being driven primarily by the people and accounts you follow to increasingly also being driven by AI recommending content that you&amp;#x27;ll find interesting from across Facebook or Instagram, even if you don&amp;#x27;t follow those creators. Social content from people you know is going to remain an important part of the experience and some of our most differentiated content. But increasingly, we&amp;#x27;ll also be able to supplement that with other interesting content from across our networks. Reels is one part of this trend that focuses on the growth of short-form video as a content format.&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>darth_avocado</author><text>Yes it’s a negative feedback loop created by the very bad product decisions they made to optimize for local maxima of getting more ads revenue. You inject more and more ads followed by more and more suggested content, thereby reducing the in network content. The in network content doesn’t get as much of traction, therefore people stop posting. This in turn forces the feed to have more and more suggestions and a few stale in network posts from days ago. This drives engagement down from people who want to see in network content and they leave. So what is left is people who do engage with suggested content, pushing the product to make decisions to push even more suggested content. All of this continues till eventually fatigue sets in and a sudden rapid drop in engagement kicks in because your global maxima of a quality product was lost long time ago and your product dies.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>yamrzou</author><text>Yes, here is a chronology of key events:&lt;p&gt;2020 — Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.axios.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;05&amp;#x2F;facebook-launches-its-tiktok-rival-instagram-reels&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.axios.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;05&amp;#x2F;facebook-launches-its-tikto...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;2021 — TikTok overtakes Facebook as world&amp;#x27;s most downloaded app: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;asia.nikkei.com&amp;#x2F;Business&amp;#x2F;Technology&amp;#x2F;TikTok-overtakes-Facebook-as-world-s-most-downloaded-app&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;asia.nikkei.com&amp;#x2F;Business&amp;#x2F;Technology&amp;#x2F;TikTok-overtakes...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Feb. 2022 — Facebook loses users for the first time in its history — &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;facebook-earnings-meta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;faceboo...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;July 2022 — Facebook and Instagram are going to show even more posts from accounts you don’t follow — &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theverge.com&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;7&amp;#x2F;27&amp;#x2F;23281451&amp;#x2F;facebook-instagram-meta-recommendation-discovery-engine-ai&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theverge.com&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;7&amp;#x2F;27&amp;#x2F;23281451&amp;#x2F;facebook-instagr...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;July 2022 — Instagram knows you don’t like its changes. It doesn’t care. — &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;27&amp;#x2F;instagram-video-shift-kardashian&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;27&amp;#x2F;instagr...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends&apos; posts</title><url>https://old.reddit.com/r/facebook/comments/tvqddc/fb_feed_is_98_suggested_pages_and_barely_any/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fairity</author><text>No, this isn&amp;#x27;t a consequence of the status quo newsfeed algorithm.  This is a consequence of Facebook making a purposeful strategic shift away from in-network content to suggested content.  This strategic shift was highlighted in their last earnings call as a way to compete with TikTok, whose success is partly explained by their focus on suggested content.  On the earnings call, they signaled that they were shifting more to a mix of the two content styles in the coming quarters, but the OP is likely enrolled in some sort of test that is giving them 98%.&lt;p&gt;See the below excerpt from Meta&amp;#x27;s Q2 earnings call:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;One of the main transformations in our business right now is that social feeds are going from being driven primarily by the people and accounts you follow to increasingly also being driven by AI recommending content that you&amp;#x27;ll find interesting from across Facebook or Instagram, even if you don&amp;#x27;t follow those creators. Social content from people you know is going to remain an important part of the experience and some of our most differentiated content. But increasingly, we&amp;#x27;ll also be able to supplement that with other interesting content from across our networks. Reels is one part of this trend that focuses on the growth of short-form video as a content format.&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>darth_avocado</author><text>Yes it’s a negative feedback loop created by the very bad product decisions they made to optimize for local maxima of getting more ads revenue. You inject more and more ads followed by more and more suggested content, thereby reducing the in network content. The in network content doesn’t get as much of traction, therefore people stop posting. This in turn forces the feed to have more and more suggestions and a few stale in network posts from days ago. This drives engagement down from people who want to see in network content and they leave. So what is left is people who do engage with suggested content, pushing the product to make decisions to push even more suggested content. All of this continues till eventually fatigue sets in and a sudden rapid drop in engagement kicks in because your global maxima of a quality product was lost long time ago and your product dies.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bazeblackwood</author><text>Bad strategy, imo. Sounds like they should have tried to answer why people used their product in the first place. “A competitor does it” isn’t a valid excuse—its like suggesting The French Laundry switch to fast food because McDonald’s is a competitor.</text></comment>