Facebook’s video streaming platform Watch has launched globally, a year after arriving in the US.

Facebook Watch was originally announced back on 9 August 2017. You can be forgiven for not realising this even if you live in the US, as it hasn’t exactly flattened YouTube in the last year.

However, keep spam-refreshing the Facebook Watch URL if you fancy finding out what it’s about. At the time of writing it’s not live in the UK (for us, anyway). But it should be soon.

Watch sounds a lot like YouTube. However, it has more of an immediate focus on established media-makers than YouTube had, or has. It called Watch a “new platform for shows” in 2017.

In order for creators to make money, by adding advertising breaks in their vids, they need to have 10,000 followers, and 30,000 people need to have watched their videos in the last month for over a minute. And that's not easy on a platform establishing itself, even if it is a Facebook platform.

Half US Facebook users said they had never heard of Watch in a recent survey by Diffusion Group.

However, half-hour drama Sorry For Your Loss starting Elizabeth Olsen will debut on Facebook Watch on 19 September. So that might nudge a few eyes, even if they did originally see the show’s trailer on YouTube.