Could Facebook be the first real challenger to YouTube?

Shawn Knight

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facebook sees huge jump video activity facebook video social networking

When one thinks of video on the web, services like YouTube, Dailymotion and Vine typically come to mind. But after embarking on a heavy video push a year ago, Facebook has quietly climbed the ranks to become one of the top destinations on the web for sharing, watching and interacting with videos.

Over the past year, the number of videos posted per person has increased 75 percent globally and 94 percent in the US.

Users are now viewing more than 1 billion videos each day – and have been since July. On an average day, more than half of the people that come back to Facebook each day in the US watch at least one video while 76 percent of Facebook users in America claim they now use the social network to discover new videos.

The influx of video content has also changed the landscape of news feeds. Globally, the amount of video now appearing in feeds from people and brands has increased 3.6x year-over-year.

The updated statistics arrive as part of a Facebook post on what the shift to video means for content creators and how to use video more effectively. For example, the site encourages users to post raw videos that are compelling, shareable and that no one else will have.

Another tip for (serious) video makers is to be conscious of their audience as most people will discover their content wedged between a status update from a relative or a photo of a friend.

Self-promotion aside, Facebook could very well be poised to become the first major threat that YouTube has seen to date.

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I admit, I like how they show the views now. I didn't notice it back then, but I notice some videos with maybe a couple hundred likes have up to 10 million views lol.
 
Self-promotion aside, Facebook could very well be poised to become the first major threat that YouTube has seen to date.
What? No one searches facebook for video instruction on how to change their oil. And who would use youtube to post a video of their kid's birthday party? Then, what? Post a link to youtube on your facebook page?

FB is for videos for friends and Youtube is for videos for the world. It's not like people only have time to watch videos on one website....
 
IDK. This would mean having to read all the pedantic vitriol of all my old classmates along while looking at the videos. I'm not sure I can handle that much stupid. Maybe I just need two Facebook accounts? Sorry just really sour on my Facebook account lately. You can only read so many "birther" commentary until you permanently unsubscribe.
 
Yet with their system the videos are still quite pixelated. It's become quite annoying that half what you see in the feed are videos (and half these videos still being on youtube). Facebook still has a long way to do before even thinking of becoming a threat to Youtube.
 
Youtube has a HUGE amount of REAL content, not videos of people getting drunk at the bar or your grill catching on fire. Youtube is a real content provider the likes of which facebook will NEVER rival. It's a dedicated search engine for videos on their servers and thousands of high profile content creators have picked it as their delivery service of choice. It is also ad supported so people who post videos get a share of the money made from them.

Facebook's crude video player and lack of search will prevent it from ever coming close to youtube. You should be ashamed of yourself for posting such a garbage article
 
I don't Facebook is even trying to. People post crap videos of others doing silly shiat or cooking, and most of those are links from vine or Youtube.
 
That's all fine and dandy, but rather pointless when you consider they still don't have a dislike button. YouTube understands the importance of negative feedback.
 
I'd say no, but YouTube hasn't made it's position any better by being Google-ised
 
Facebook pales in comparison to YouTube when it comes to playing videos, in virtually every aspect I can think of. Facebook will never be a serious threat until it can match YouTube's superior UI, search algorithms, image quality, performance, etc...

Nobody goes to FB looking for videos... They just occasionally watch a funny video that shows up in their news feed, along with some videos made by friends and family. It's all very casual, whereas YouTube is where people go for real content.
 
That's like saying Facebook is a challenger to the popular news sites because there are lots of news articles posted daily. Obviously not the case. Anyone with half a brain doesn't rely on FB for their news.
 
How about nope, nope and some more nope.

Facebook could go on youtube's way but it would loose all meaning. One is for "private" content you want to actually share with friends or family or whatnot, the other is a totally different experience.
 
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