Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is shuttering its Facebook Gaming app launched two years ago, due to its failure to catch up in an industry dominated by Twitch.

The game, which lets users watch and play video games on-demand, will no longer work or be available to download starting on October 28th, 2022, Facebook said in a notice sent to users.

“We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to all of you for everything that you’ve done to build a thriving community for gamers and fans since this app first launched,” the company said in an update on the Facebook Gaming app.

“This was truly a community-led effort to bring new gaming features to Facebook,” it added.

“Despite this news, our mission to connect players, fans and creators with the games they love hasn’t changed, and you’ll still be able to find your games, streamers and groups when you visit Gaming in the Facebook app.”

Facebook Gaming was developed on Covid-19 wave that stoked gaming activities for many people forced to stay indoors through safety restrictions. The app was seen as a potential threat to Twitch in the beginning, but it gradually lost its smoke as economic activities resumed, following the lifting of restrictions.

The gaming market was largely dominated by Twitch and YouTube. Facebook Gaming, in a move to disrupt their dominance, added extra features including a creator program, and another feature to help build out its platform, such as the ability to co-stream.

Microsoft was another company to delve into gaming with Mixer, a streaming platform that it recruited Ninja and Shroud in multimillion dollar deal to propel, failed. Facebook bought Mixer in 2020.

Despite these efforts, Facebook Gaming failed to stand up to rivals Twitch and YouTube in the game streaming market. In the second quarter of 2022, Facebook Gaming accounted for only 7.9% of the market share for amount of hours watched, behind Twitch (76.7%) and YouTube (15.4%), according to a report from market research firm Streamlabs.

But delving into the gaming market is just one among many attempts that Facebook has made at divestment. Following its rebranding as Meta, the social media behemoth has been trying out many new ventures in markets dominated by others.

The company’s revenue took a major hit in January, wiping out more than $200 billion from its market value.

In February, Meta announced a major shift in its business that will encompass reels, metaverse among others. The shift to short-form video features is to wrestle market shares from the high-flying TikTok, which has won over a teeming number of young people globally.

“We took on headwinds in the near-term to align with important trends over the long term. And while video has historically been slower to monetize, we believe that over time short-form video is going to monetize more like feed or Stories than like Watch – so I’m optimistic that we’ll get to where we need to be with Reels too,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg had said.

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Apple makes proprietary hardware packaged on exclusive software. But increasingly, the business model has moved from the hardware to “services and solutions” within the ecosystem. That is the reason we do not read that much on the number of iPhone and iPad sold these days. If that remains, Apple’s future to win those services and solutions space will mean more users, and not necessarily selling fashionista and expensive hardware. So, Apple needs to have numbers.

 So, the new playbook Google is unveiling which is to make cheap 5G phones with India’s Jio is a first shot on the battle for the soul of 5G: “India’s telecom giant Reliance is working with Google on a $25 billion plan to develop affordable 5G smartphones and services, the company said on Monday.”

Do we expect to have a cheaper version of iPhone for the 5G era as the company looks for ways to deal with Google’s plan to flood the future with ultra-affordable 5G phones?

Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani said during the company’s annual general meeting that Jio’s 5G network, which will be launched starting with New Delhi and Mumbai before being expanded across the rest of the country by next year December, will be the world’s largest.

The plan, which is the latest in the company’s efforts to disrupt India’s telecom market, is expected to be executed in two months. It has a promise of crashing the cost 5G devices in India, making it “ultra-affordable”.

“To take the 5G mass market, a sub-$100 phone is imperative and Jio is rightly positioned to bring 5G to the masses,” Reuters quoted Neil Shah, vice president of research at Counterpoint, as saying.

Certainly, not many will care since the iPhone is a fashion symbol besides being a great device. But if Google attacks from the bottom, many will not ascend into the higher iPhone. More so, Apple is pushing Apple Pay to the developing parts of the world. The implication is that it will need users in those regions to buy into the Apple Universe to make use of Apple Pay.

Comment on Feed

Comment 1: Trends change quite fast in the telecommunications age. That said, Apple seems to still have a safety net in the sense that it’s products are seen as status symbols. However betting on quality low price products is usually nearly guaranteed to win. For now my belief is that Apple has the numbers, in the sense that those who own their products can also afford most of the services that they offer. Their only worry is that markets evolve and if Google collaboration with Rio is successful be sure with time they will offer whatever services that Apple is offering now. Anyway 2 organisations cannot produce enough for the world. Expect Chinese companies to bulldoze their way into the 5G products market soon.

Comment 2: This is a grt entry model for Google into the 5G arena using one of the largest markets for this roll out. I challenge MTN to glean some initiative from this and maybe partner with TECNO to replicate similar feat for the largest black market on earth (Nigeria), spreading same across Africa.

My Response to 2: Indeed, it would be amazing if that can happen. If they do contract payment where payments are spread over months, a telco can execute that in Nigeria.

Comment 3: Ndubuisi Ekekwe there’as always been cheap smart phones and there will always be cheap smart phones, and apple will continue to be a market leader in its category (hardware and service). Unlike Samsung and Google, Apple continues to thrive by adopting a “Focused Differentiation” strategy (Bowman’s strategy clock)

My Response 3: Absolutely, I did note that. Yet, in the world of services, that strategy while great will not last forever. If because of your premium hardware, India cannot connect into your services, you are scoring an own-goal. Apple has to make that decision. 5G presents a transition phase and could create a dislocation especially if Apple comes with very expensive iPhone.