Facebook to shut down its podcast service on June 3

Facebook is shutting down its podcasts and audio services to better focus on AR and VR in particular.

The Facebook service will disappear just a year after launch. Parent company Meta recently confirmed to Bloomberg that it wants to end its audio business, which includes podcasts, Soundbites and the audio hub. Podcasters will no longer be able to add new episodes to Facebook this week and the feature will be completely removed on June 3rd. The hub and Soundbites will be closed in the “coming weeks”and Live Audio Rooms will be taken over by Facebook Live.

Facebook shuts down its podcasts and audio services

A spokesperson for Meta called the move a reorganization of the effort. This allows Meta to “focus on the experience that makes the most sense.”

to better focus on AR and VR, especially

There have been several hints in recent weeks that Meta has little interest in podcasts and wants to focus on larger products like Facebook’s main news feed and InstagramReels. However, there has been a good user response to the audio services, as Meta Bloomberg explained in mid-April, but U.S. sources at the same time claimed that the company was more interested in the metaverse and shopping when it interacted with its podcast partners. In other words, Meta’s current interest in AR and VR and competitors like TikTok has shifted Menlo Park’s focus to audio.

Facebook also faces some pretty tough competition in the audio services market. Podcast service operators such as Apple and Spotify were already a major threat, and 2021 saw a spike in Clubhouse copying. Meta then ran into services like Twitter Spaces and Reddit Talk. There was no guarantee that Facebook would manage to stand out even with such a popular platform as its own and such extensive resources at its disposal.