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It's official: Google blew it with YouTube, and Facebook has caught up
(YouTube) Facebook bit Google's finger.
It's official. Google blew it.
Fortune has a story out about Facebook's huge investment in video in which writer Erin Griffith reports: "In April, Facebook hit 4 billion views per day, matching the latest estimates available for 10-year-old YouTube."
Here are some other notes from the story:
Facebook's 4 billion daily views are up fourfold from a year ago.
This is a core mission for Facebook. Facebook has become "synonymous with mobile," Facebook ad exec Carolyn Everson says. "I think that the next frontier is becoming synonymous with mobile video."
People used to share video from other sites on Facebook. In February, however, "70% of Facebook's videos were uploaded directly," Griffith reports.
Video is working for publishers. BuzzFeed had 500 million video views on Facebook in April. Mic had 33 million in two months from eight videos.
Griffith: "Complex Media reports average completion rates of 78% for its Facebook videos, which last two to 10 minutes."
Facebook has tweaked its News Feed algorithm to favor video, according to one Facebook page owner. If you have a page with a million followers, your photos will reach 14% of your followers, your text-only posts will reach 4%, and your videos will reach 35%.
Facebook suddenly got so many views by turning on "autoplay" for videos, which start playing without sound as soon as users scroll over them.
Facebook believes autoplay is "magical," "awesome," and "completely rad" — a not super obvious way to force-feed users with video. (For now!)
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