The Untold Story of Facebook Video
How Former Facebook Engineer Pete Hunt Transformed Facebook Video.
Every product or feature usually goes through a journey. It is not always possible to get everything right on the first go. Sometimes, all it takes is a revamp of an existing feature or product for it to become a huge success.
In the following excerpt from Move Fast: How Facebook Builds Software, coming out July 6, I discuss the story behind Facebook Video and how Peter Hunt turned it into a feature used by millions. Subscribe to this newsletter for daily advance content from the book.
Pete Hunt is a Facebook engineer who joined the company in 2011. Pete is six-foot-four with a towering frame and a curly mop of hair. His default expression is a lighthearted, goofy smile, but Pete becomes a serious, imposing figure once he starts to discuss matters of software. Today, Pete’s reputation among engineers precedes him. Large crowds gather at his conference talks, and his Internet comments about JavaScript frameworks are widely quoted.
But back in 2011, Pete was just a new engineer looking to prove himself.
When he joined Facebook, Pete started working on Facebook Video. “Video was a hackathon project from two or three years before I joined and nobody was maintaining it. It wasn’t a source of revenue for the company.”
Facebook Video existed in a nebulous space between prototype and finished product. It was accessible to users but not widely seen or promoted through the newsfeed.
Although Facebook Video was not an exciting product when Pete began working on it, he saw the obvious potential for video on Facebook. “Facebook was always trying to ship the minimum viable product and that was where Facebook Video was at when I started working on it.”
Shortly after Pete started working on Video, the product rapidly improved. With iteration, Facebook Video became more closely integrated with the rest of the Facebook product, which caused more users to see and use it.
Today, Facebook users watch millions of videos on Facebook every day. Facebook Video generates advertising revenue for the company and has a significant amount of resources allocated to it.
While you are waiting for Move Fast: How Facebook Builds Software, watch the very first video version of Software Daily with David Rosenthal, Co-host of Acquired.