FACEBOOK VS YOUTUBE WHO WILL BE THE KING OF VIDEO SHARING? - WHITE PAPER - NOVEMBER 2014
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WHITE PAPER – NOVEMBER 2014
FACEBOOK VS YOUTUBE
WHO WILL BE THE KING OF VIDEO
SHARING?
CONTENTS
2. Introduction
3-7. Does Facebook have what it takes?
8-10. Ice Bucket Challenge
11. Facebook and Auto Play
12-13. The Future of Facebook
14. About BlueDoor Inc., Sources
1
INTRODUCTION
When it comes to video sharing, YouTube has always been the top player. No other
social platform had ever come close in competition – and that had remained the case
until recently. Facebook has just announced its intention to increase its presence as a
video sharing site, adding enhancements and certain features to its own platform to
compete more effectively with YouTube.
Since the beginning of September 2014, Facebook has begun to mirror YouTube
video characteristics by introducing video view counts, as well as recommending
relevant content at the end of uploaded clips.
By introducing these features, Facebook hopes that brands and marketers will be
more likely to post videos to the site, because they will now be able to track and
measure the results of their marketing campaigns. They will be able to establish how
well audiences are responding to their videos and content. These YouTube-like
features can also benefit the ‘average user’ by assisting in locating popular and
trending video clips. Facebook also plans at some point to allow videos uploaded on
the site to be more easily embeddable on third-party sites.
Here we will evaluate the ongoing battle between Facebook and YouTube and will
determine whether Facebook can indeed overtake the site that still dominates the
video sharing world.
2
DOES FACEBOOK HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?
As stated previously, Facebook is attempting to mimic several video features that
YouTube currently offers. Should YouTube be worried? According to Facebook, the
site is pulling in average figures of more than 1 billion video views per day. These
views have increased 50% from May to July in 2014. More than 65% of video views
are on mobile devices. (Source: pcpro.co.uk)
In September 2014, Facebook announced that there will be a ‘call to action’ tool
available to publishers. This tool will direct audiences to specific websites of further
related content. Publishers will also have access to a better analytical system that
will help them better measure viewing figures, and to connect with target users.
YouTube is still the dominating force in video sharing – especially due to the fact
that publishers can earn money from ads showcased around their videos. But
Facebook has an edge. The social factor of Facebook means that videos are shared
quickly; therefore gaining popularity at a much faster rate.
The New York Times has reported that the management company of global
superstar Beyoncé, communicates with fans mainly through Facebook. They do this
by uploading videos of behind-the-scenes footage of her musical performances. Her
VMA performance, which was uploaded towards the end of August, accumulated
2.4 million views in the first few hours of being posted. The same video was also
posted on YouTube, but received only a few thousand hits in comparison. (Source:
newyorktimes.com)
3
DOES FACEBOOK HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?
It seems that the reason for the video’s popularity on Facebook was that the 64
million (Facebook) fans of Beyoncé were able to view and share the clip on their
newsfeeds. The fans that were viewing the same clip on YouTube could not share it
so easily.
''For us, Facebook has become the primary platform that we use to communicate
content to fans,'' said Lauren Wirtzer Seawood, head of digital at Parkwood
Entertainment, Beyoncé's management company.
Screen grab from the behind–the-scene
footage that was posted on the Facebook
page.
4
DOES FACEBOOK HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?
Facebook continues to have an advantage over YouTube in so far as the ‘sharing’
option is built into the site – clicking ‘like’ or ‘share’ makes a video instantly visible
on people’s newsfeeds. While sharing is possible on YouTube, it isn’t quite as easy
as the ‘one click’ option offered by Facebook. Since June 2014, Facebook has seen
on average a billion video views a day, with about 100 million new videos being
uploaded every month. While these figures don’t quite match up to the traffic of
YouTube, it is still a sharp increase in only a matter of months. (Source: cnbc.com)
The popular website BuzzFeed places its content on many sites, but Facebook is
among the fastest growing. Mr. Frank said the number of times BuzzFeed videos
were shared on Facebook grew 160 percent from June to July, and 200 per cent
from July to August. (Source: cnbc.com)
A blogger posting on entrepreneur.com conducted an experiment with the two
video sharing sites, by posting the same video on both platforms. The blogger noted
that the reach and engagement figures were much higher on Facebook. (Source:
entrepreneur.com)
5
DOES FACEBOOK HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?
A larger (but significantly older study) was conducted by ‘social bakers’ in 2013. The
study compared the engagement rates between videos uploaded directly onto
Facebook, and also shared on the site via YouTube links.
The study noted that Facebook page administrators preferred to upload videos via
YouTube links, rather than posting videos natively. According the study, page admins
posted 3,684 YouTube links compared to 458 Facebook videos towards the end of
January (from January 22nd to January 27th 2013).
It was revealed that even though YouTube links were posted 8 times more than
Facebook videos, both platforms received similar levels of interaction and similar
numbers of ‘likes’, ‘shares’ and comments. This can be seen in the graph below. ‘Likes’
were the most popular form of interaction and the Facebook videos generated double
the amounts of comments that YouTube links did.
6
DOES FACEBOOK HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?
Native Facebook videos achieved a 40% higher engagement rate than YouTube links.
The reason for this may be because the videos are more easily viewed on mobile
devices as they play directly from Facebook newsfeeds. Viewing YouTube links means
having to be redirected to the YouTube site which means more data consumption.
As stated earlier this study was conducted more than a year ago and posting videos
directly to Facebook as opposed to posting links from YouTube has become much
more popular. The social media phenomenon which highlighted this switch was perhaps
the ALS Ice bucket challenge.
7
ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE – THE TURNING POINT?
It can be argued that the ‘ice bucket challenge’ has best demonstrated Facebook’s
growing popularity in video-sharing. The global craze took place over the summer of
2014. It involved millions of people – from celebrities to average Joes – pouring buckets
of ice water over their heads to raise money for research into amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis.
Between June 1 and Sept 1, Facebook said that millions of videos related to the
challenge were shared on its service. These videos were viewed more than 10 billion
times by more than 440 million people. (Source: facebook.com)
The views on these videos were so high because they could be automatically seen on
auto-play, and Facebook's tagging feature allowed people to challenge specific friends to
take the challenge. ''The coolest thing is, it taught people how to post a video,'' said Mr.
Cox of Facebook.
In comparison YouTube received 1 billion views of ice bucket challenge videos and 2.3
million uploads. (Source: fool.com)
8
ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE – THE TURNING POINT?
Ice Bucket Challenge Uploads
2,420,000
2,400,000
2,380,000
2,360,000
2,340,000
2,320,000
2,300,000
2,280,000
2,260,000
2,240,000
Facebook YouTube
Ice Bucket Challenge Views
12,000,000,000
10,000,000,000
8,000,000,000
6,000,000,000
4,000,000,000
2,000,000,000
0
Facebook YouTube
9ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE – THE TURNING POINT?
Facebook found that more than 28 million people have discussed the Ice Bucket
Challenge on the site — ranging from posting videos to liking related statuses, between
June 1 and August 18. (Source: time.com)
In one month, the Ice Bucket Challenge has shown that Facebook is capable of taking on
YouTube as a platform for user-generated video.
10FACEBOOK AND AUTO PLAY
The large number of Ice Challenge views on Facebook can be attributed to the auto
play feature that Facebook introduced in 2013. Auto play means that by default, videos
automatically start playing on the website or the company's mobile apps without having
to be clicked on, as the user looks down their newsfeed. While the feature has been
more than beneficial for Facebook since its introduction, it has not come without its
problems. Facebook users have complained that even though the sound is automatically
switched off, they are seeing their data usage sky rocket. Facebook have tried to
remedy this problem by allowing users to switch of the feature. The site has also
minimized data consumption and added an option whereby the videos only play in Wi-
Fi connected areas.
The Discovery Channel has been using the auto-play feature of Facebook for a few
months, and has found that “hands down, almost in every instance the video posts
outperform any other content types in terms of overall reach and engagement,”
according to Derek Dodge, director of digital programming for the cable network.
It was especially beneficial for the #snuffyLives campaign during Shark Week in August
2014. (The #snuffyLives campaign involved bringing back the seal that was swallowed
by a shark in a promo in 2013). The campaign video was posted on the Discovery
Channel’s Facebook page, and was viewed by 15 million people organically over the
course of the week. “It changed the way we think about using Facebook,” Dodge said.
In the past we saw it as a marketing platform — now it’s more of a pure media
platform. This is helping us extend our video strategy into social media.” (Source:
variety.com)
Showtime Networks is also seeing higher engagement levels for videos posted directly
on Facebook. According to Brian Swarth, VP and group director digital services at the
premium cabler, “When using Facebook’s video player, user engagement on the social
service is two to three times higher than non-native video players (such as YouTube)”,
he said. “Facebook continues to be interesting for us across digital marketing in
general, and we’ve specifically seen a massive increase in engagement with our sports
content on Facebook,” Swarth said. (Source: variety.com)
11THE FUTURE OF FACEBOOK AND VIDEO-SHARING
According to Facebook's Chief Product Officer, Chris Cox, the site “needs to do a
better job of informing average users how to shoot great video with their smartphones,
and showing professional creators how to use the social network to amplify their
audience” (source: fool.com).
In response to this, Facebook have released a new app called Hyperlapse. The app helps
to simplify video content creation for experienced and inexperienced videographers. It
uses gyroscope from mobile devices to stabilize the shooting and allows users to speed
up the playback time. The videos can then be shared directly to Facebook pages.
Facebook needs to capitalise on the success achieved by Beyoncé’s behind-the-scene
footage by reaching out to well-known content creators in order to encourage them to
upload more native Facebook videos.
The site is also working towards hosting more videos on the site and in a timelier
manner. ‘We don't support embedding right now. We should,'' Mr. Cox said in an
interview, referring to the ability to incorporate a Facebook video into other sites. ''We
need to make sure people have good controls over how and what videos they are
seeing.'' (Source: cnbc.com) If Facebook manages to incorporate this feature it will
attract more direct uploads from publishers.
12THE FUTURE OF FACEBOOK AND VIDEO-SHARING
Perhaps the key thing Facebook needs to concentrate on is working towards attracting
professional content creators by offering a share in revenue. YouTube's Partner
Program has over 1 million creators; earning substantial money from their uploads.
Facebook does not currently have anything like that in place. (Source: fool.com)
Facebook has been showing strong growth in relation to video sharing over the last 2
years but it still has a lot of catching up to do. Facebook currently averages 1 billion
views per day whereas YouTube averages more than 4 billion. (Source:
entrepreneur.com)
Over all, Facebook’s goal with video is to build “a compelling offering around our
partners’ content,” said Justin Osofsky, VP of media partnerships. “Things that drive
engagement on Facebook are a win. Things that drive distribution to our partners’ sites
are a win.” (Source: variety.com)
Will Facebook accumulate enough growth to entice users and advertisers away from
the safety net of YouTube? Only time will tell.
13ABOUT BLUEDOOR INC.
BlueDoor Inc. is a social media company based out of Toronto, Canada, specializing
in social media strategy development and execution for mid-size and large
organizations. Since being established in 2011, BlueDoor has served a variety of
sectors, including retail, e-commerce, financial, real estate, marketing, medical, food
& hospitality, travel and more.
BlueDoor’s primary product and service offering consists of an in-depth industry
analysis, specific strategies and tactics to achieve business objectives and detailed
execution plan to turn ideas into measurable results. This premium product is one of
its kind in the marketplace today, and is the primary reason for the company’s
growth over the last few years.
To learn more about our company, products and services, please visit us at
www.bluedoorinc.com.
Join our LinkedIn group called Social Media Done Right and don’t forget to
connect with us on the other networks!
References
http://youtube-trends.blogspot.ca/2013/02/the-harlem-shake-has-exploded.html
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/09/13/how-the-ice-bucket-challenge-helped-launch-faceboo.aspx
http://time.com/3117501/als-ice-bucket-challenge-videos-on-facebook/
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/390679/facebook-gunning-for-youtube-with-new-video-features#ixzz3EAJEEvjz
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237197
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101978954
http://www.entrepreneurdelights.com/facebook-vs-youtube-the-battle-is-heating-up1/
http://www.socialbakers.com/blog/1417-facebook-videos-vs-youtube-links-which-gets-higher-engagement
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/08/technology/facebooks-feeds-give-videos-a-boost.html?_r=0
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