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Facebook fires shots at YouTube with new Facebook video hub

Not too long ago Facebook announced that it was racking up to 8 billion video views EVERY DAY!

As impressive as that is, it is worthwhile noting YouTube, reported 4 billion daily views back in 2012, a number which has likely risen by more than double since!

IMPORTANT READ: I wrote an article about Facebook Video Insights the other day and you NEED to read it!

YouTube is currently king of video…

…but Facebook isn’t centuries behind them either and is aiming to change ALL OF THIS with its new dedicated video hub.

As you can see at the bottom of the mobile device is a “video” button. Users can click on that to take them to what is essentially a video marketplace.

It allows you to see a selection of videos from friends, liked pages, saved videos, videos you’ve already watched or videos that have been recommended by friends.

Here is a demonstration Facebook put out themselves, just so you can get a better idea of how it works – skip to around 40 seconds in:

They announced that it was testing the feature back in 2015 (near October), so I imagine it will be rolled out publicly within the next couple months.

Even if Facebook did surpass YouTube in views (which I highly doubt) it is difficult to compare both channels, as each platform defines a “video view” differently;

Facebook – Videos which are displayed for 3 seconds or over, regardless of whether the user has activated sound, are counted as a view.

YouTube – Videos watched for 30 seconds or over are counted as a view.

A view on YouTube is 10 times more than what it is on Facebook…something to consider when comparing the two platforms.

To end this article, here are a list of the main features Facebook rolled out just in 2016:

• Suggested videos – Bringing videos which users may be interested in to their attention
• A save button – Allowing users to bookmark content to come back to later
• Multitasking – Allow users to continue watching a video whilst scrolling through their feed
• Live video – Enables users to share a video of them instantly in the location they’re in
• Facebook Marketplace – People now have the ability to buy and sell within Facebook
• Instant articles – The ability to read articles without actually having to leave Facebook!
• Facebook Reactions – Allows users to “react” to posts with a series of emotions.

It was a massive year to say the least…now and Facebook fires shots at YouTube with new Facebook video hub! What will be next for the social media giant?