Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has surpassed YouTube for video views on desktop for the first time with the help of its auto-play feature, ComScore co-founder and executive chairman Emeritus Gian Fulgoni said in an interview with Beet.tv. In the month of August, the social networking company delivered approximately a billion more than YouTube views. However, on mobile, YouTube was the winner.
Auto play does it for Facebook (FB)
Although auto-play is helping the social network achieve its target, there is also the question of user engagement. According to Fulgoni, the numbers are impressive, and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s auto-play feature is surely an advantage for the company over YouTube.
“While there’s reach advantage for auto-play, there’s an issue as to whether you’re getting good engagement. You’re getting good engagement from user-initiated (video on YouTube) by definition.”
The largest social networking company stated in September that it was generating more than a billion video views on a day-to-day basis. The credit for that success is also shared by the adjusted News Feed algorithm in June, which started offering users more relevant video content, making them interested in watching videos.
Sean Mills, president of the mobile news operation NowThisNews, stated that the video views for his company increased because of the News Feed update. Mill said that their monthly video views over Facebook has surged 30X since July, and there are tens of millions of views on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) each month. ComScore noted that Facebook is still behind Google Sites in video views across total devices.
YouTube videos getting rarer on Facebook
On Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), YouTube videos are getting rarer as the social networking site is giving priority to homegrown videos, according to a report from Socialbreaker. The researcher noted that Facebook is surging to take over YouTube video posts in the News Feed. The conclusion was drawn after analyzing 20,000 Facebook Pages from brands, media, celebrities and entertainment companies and 180,000 posts over the last 12 months on desktop and mobile.
Jan Rezab, CEO and co-founder of Socialbreakers, noted this as a challenge for YouTube, and it is a big deal. Rezab added that the Google service could lose a substantial part of its distribution. However, for Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), it is encouraging and also indicates that users are going to stay and not leave.
