Can Facebook outdo YouTube?
New announcements from Facebook, at their recent developers’ conference, the F8, has tech experts wondering if Facebook will one day “out-You Tube You Tube.” Facebook users can now embed videos, and Facebook’s algorithm will now find relevant videos and post them on users’ newsfeeds.
YouTube is incumbent champion of online video content, but Facebook may be able to use its considerable leverage to lure some of YouTube’s top content creators to switch teams. Facebook is also able to generate exclusive content.
For the second year in a row, Facebook has collaborated with HBO to provide exclusive live video streaming of the red carpet premiere of Game of Thrones. What’s more, two of MSNBC’s new news programs will be unveiled on Facebook before airing on TV or any other website.
Is YouTube on the decline?
Facebook says that the number of videos posts per user has increased 75 percent globally each year, and 94 percent in the United States. Meanwhile, in September 2014, YouTube reported that their views had dropped nine percent in a year. Facebook claims to host 3 billion videos per day, and many millions of views. However, the view statistic may be skewed by the fact that Facebook counts a video as “viewed” after a mere three seconds, while YouTube requires a 30 second view to count in its stats.
While Facebook’s multimedia approach has made is successful at breaking into new territory in the past, it’s hard to imagine Facebook overtaking YouTube anytime soon. YouTube gets so many searches it is considered the number two search engine in the world.
Facebook’s weak spot
Meanwhile, Facebook still has no function for searching for videos. You can simply watch the recommended videos on you news feed, or not. Unless Facebook’s video platform becomes more interactive, the social media site will have a challenge rebranding itself as a prime place on the web to watch videos.
