When it comes to sharing video online, the very first resource comes into thought is YouTube but the scenario is not the same since Facebook has introduced its video platform for users.
In a blog post, Facebook indicates that there is a 94% increase in number of sharing videos on Facebook platform in USA and 75% globally in 2015. Each person is at least watching 1 video per day on Facebook. Since last year the stat has risen and now people are watching four times more videos.
Growing in Number of Facebook Videos:
Many users are not aware about the fact that Facebook is now becoming a giant in video sharing platform. The Facebook video platform is new for users and it is rapidly growing. And on the other hand, YouTube video platform is not growing in that pace. Though in terms of content, YouTube still has a upper hand on Facebook, still Facebook has experienced an increase of video sharing 4 times more than last year.
Earlier YouTube videos need to be embedded on Facebook in order to share a video, but soon after introducing Facebook’s own video platform, this practice came to an end and now people are sharing Facebook videos on Facebook.
Facebook videos are performing better in their home website (Facebook). It has an auto-play function and the algorithm is designed in a way that a news feed consists of 30% of the videos, which is the major driving factor here.
Though YouTube Video uploads and Video Ads are still on top, but Facebook has managed to shift the crowd looking to promote brand from YouTube to Facebook. This is how Facebook is impacting YouTube, even though only 5% of the Facebook Videos are used and still Images is the major marketing method on Facebook. We can only imagine that only 5% of videos can create this kind of tantrum so what we still got to see as the usage of Facebook video rises.
Some more reasons are:
• Interactions on Facebook videos are more interactive than any other media or social networking platform
• Publishers and News Media are now directed towards Facebook videos
This is not the end; it is just the beginning as Facebook is on the run to change the way we see the universe through newly introduced and ever evolving video platform. It is already mentioned by Jay Parikh VP Global Engineering and Infrastructure at FB, that in the coming years most of the experiences on Facebook is in the video medium to offer the user richer experience.
You already started experiencing the changes, previous year an auto play feature was introduced in Facebook Videos and it managed to break deal with huge channel like NatGeo, and plan to introduce it as one-stop source for social as well as news content and becoming the 2nd largest Desktop source of information in the US as per the report published on ComScore. YouTube somehow managed to still capture the 1st spot.
Along with introducing support for user interactive 360 degree videos earlier in the year, Facebook started working on the new feature named as “Suggested videos”. It is designed as per the concept to make it handy for the user to watch every type of video, with a goal to make people engaged more on site for as long as possible.
While the feature is still in testing phase, Facebook is happy with the outcome, mentioned in a press release. And they have clearly mentioned that it is just a beginning and the best is yet to come and they would give a tough competition to the video giant YouTube.
Along with this they have mentioned some added benefits that they are launching a new feature which enables users to watch the video in floating window and continue surfing and social activities simultaneously.
Though currently users have to put their window static in order to watch the video, YouTube has already employed this feature on its mobile app. So you can see how they are fighting with each other. This makes us being on the edge and wait to see that who will make next move, this means the battle between Facebook and YouTube will continue.