MAM
“Facebook Live will be the future of advertising”: Fergus O’ Hare
MUMBAI: Facebook’s recently launched live streaming service ‘Facebook Live’ is yet another tool that digital marketers can add to their kitty. There is no denying the fact that 2016 will be the year of video streaming in India, with bandwidth easing out thanks to Reliance Jio and other 4G players, as well as broadband expanding and strengthening to tier II and tier III cities.
For India that means more disruption in the video space, especially for those dealing with the news media and live events space. Because Facebook Live allows live video streaming on not just from smartphones but other devices like drones as well!
Citing the multiple uses the new service will have for brands, Facebook Creative Shop APAC Fergus O’ Hare revealed, “We just launched it a couple of weeks ago. It’s still at an infant stage now. It’s a great way to tell people what is happening at the moment, share real-time updates and emotions. From an advertiser’s standpoint, there is so much one can do. Currently we are making certain tweaks to make it easier and more convenient for the advertisers to reach consumers. This could be the future of advertising on Facebook.”
Explaining why he added, “The dying breed of salesmen will find a renewed motivation with Facebook Live as they can make calls to consumers at specific relevant times of the day when they are most likely to buy the product. Brands can call you any time of the day when it matters the most.”
When asked if that would make the service ad intrusive, O’Hare argued, “In Facebook we have to always make sure that things are not intrusive. If people ‘X’ the ads, then advertisers will have to spend more money to put up their ads again. If we become intrusive with our ads, people will stop using Facebook. So we do anything and everything to make sure we are not intrusive. Interest and relevance plays a huge role in curating ads for each person so that users don’t see the ads they don’t want to.”
Brands can also build their credibility by taking consumers to their factories and beaming the production live from there, O’ Hare shared. As per the ESP Sportzpower report 2016, most of the internet users in a stadium or at a sporting event use their devices to share content rather than getting news. This would mean a ready demand for Facebook Live among sports fanatics. For publishers, digital media and digital creators like YouTube stars, this could mean live beaming of their content from anywhere they want. The service allows one to go on short commercial breaks and put the advertisements they want to and make revenue from there.
On the revenue model of Facebook Live, O’ Hare commented, “We haven’t figured it out for sure yet, as we have just launched. We want to play it out and see how users interact with it before setting specifications. First people need to live and put content for us to monetize it. For now we know that it will be a sort of commercial break that you get on television, only it will be on demand and completely as per the choice of the user, and viewers can also filter the type of ads they want to see in their live feed.”
O’Hare concludes by asking not to confuse the Live feed and commercial breaks with TV ads, as the advertisements on Facebook Live will still be targeted and personalised. “TV follows the prime time formula where 9 ads are force fed to viewers even if they are not interested in them. On Facebook we go by relevance and then the right time,” O’ Hare added in parting.
Brands
Reserve Bank of India cancels Paytm Payments Bank licence
Central bank cites compliance failures; curbs tighten as wind-up looms
MUMBAI: India’s banking watchdog delivered its sharpest blow yet to Paytm Payments Bank, cancelling its licence and effectively ending its ability to operate as a bank under the law.
The Reserve Bank of India said the entity can no longer conduct banking business under the Banking Regulation Act, citing concerns that its affairs were not being run in the interest of depositors or the public and that it had failed to meet licence conditions.
The move escalates a crackdown that has been building for months. The bank had already been barred from onboarding new customers since March 11, 2022, and later faced restrictions on deposits, credit and wallet top-ups. In January 2024, the central bank ordered it to stop accepting fresh deposits, pointing to persistent non-compliance, including lapses in customer due diligence, use of funds and technology systems.
Operationally, the bank is now on a tight leash. It may process withdrawals of existing deposits and facilitate loan referrals through banking correspondents, but it cannot take fresh deposits.
The central bank said it would apply to the high court to wind up the bank.
Paytm sought to ringfence the fallout. In a regulatory filing, it said the licence cancellation applies to Paytm Payments Bank Limited, a separate entity, and should not be attributed to One 97 Communications. It added that there is no exposure or material business arrangement with the bank and that it operates independently, without Paytm’s board or management involvement.
“As informed earlier, Paytm (One 97 Communications Limited) and its services, which have been operating without interruption, will continue to operate uninterrupted. These include the Paytm app, Paytm UPI, Paytm Gold and all other services offered by its subsidiaries and associated companies,” the company said.
The distinction may reassure users of the app ecosystem, but the regulator’s verdict is unequivocal. After years of warnings, caps and curbs, the payments bank experiment at Paytm is being shut down—decisively, and with little room left to manoeuvre.
