Meta -the company that owns Facebook and other social networks such as Instagram or WhatsApp- plans to change the marketing strategy of Facebook Portal, the company’s smart speaker that allows video calls and was launched four years ago.
Facebook Portal was launched to the general public 4 years ago now
According to sources who have had access to an internal company conference, Meta is considering stopping selling its video calling hardware to the public usually. Nor is it that it would have been a great success, motivated among other things by the low stock in countries outside the United States and by the success of other smart speakers such as Alexa or Google Home.
This is why the company is considering stopping selling them to end users and turn them into a product for companies, for holding conferences. Facebook would adopt this measure to curb the expense it is bearing trying to sell the devices to the general public and try to obtain a return on what has already been invested by marketing it among companies.
Facebook launched two Portal models in 2018, designed mainly to hold videoconferences and to host apps that allowed you to listen to music on Spotify or watch videos, similar to those launched by Google and Amazon.
However, its few functionalities and the need to be connected to Facebook do not seem to have finished convincing users to get hold of these devices. Since then, other versions of Portal have been released, such as Portal Go, but they have not met with great success among consumers either.
According to the IDC consultancy, Facebook manufactured around 800,000 units of Portal in 2021, and failed to gain even 1% market share. Currently, the price of Portal products ranges between 99 and 349 euros, which is what the device with camera and smart screen costs.
