Facebook last week revealed that it now serves up eight billion video views each day. That's a colossal figure albeit one the social networking giant can't afford to rest on as the competition is closing in fast.
Sources familiar with the matter told The Financial Times that the number of videos viewed on Snapchat has tripled since May, from two billion to six billion. A spokesperson for the messaging app confirmed the figure but didn't elaborate.
Facebook, meanwhile, doubled its number of video views since April. It's worth noting, however, that Facebook's figures include both desktop and mobile views while Snapchat's audience is made up entirely of mobile users.
Snapchat has recently added a number of new features to bolster its user experience. In September, for example, it rolled out the option to purchase extra replays - three for $0.99.
As the publication points out, comparing view statistics is like comparing apples to oranges. Facebook, for example, deems a "view" as lasting at least three seconds. With Snapchat, that number is reportedly just a few milliseconds. The differing nature of content - which is often just seconds long on Snapchat, up to a minute or more on Facebook and can be hours long on YouTube - also plays into the equation.
Video is expected to be the next major market for advertisers. Forrester Research estimates that by 2019, advertisers will collectively spend $12.6 billion on the medium.