More Videos Are Now Uploaded Directly To Facebook Than Posted Via YouTube

According to social analytics company Socialbakers, videos that are uploaded directly to Facebook now exceed the number of YouTube videos that are posted to the site. The data was based on a sample of 20,000 Facebook Pages over the past year, including brands, media, celebrities and entertainment companies.

This impressive data is evidence of a dramatic shift in power. Up until recently, Facebook wasn’t even considered a common destination for video. Most Page owners would simply share their YouTube videos on Facebook. Based on Socialbakers data, this has radically changed, with Facebook managing to carve off a big piece of YouTube’s audience for itself.

According to Socialbakers analysis, YouTube’s share of the videos that are posted to Facebook by content creators has been dropping since May. At the same time, users started to upload videos directly to Facebook at a highly increased rate. Facebook’s share of video posts uploaded directly to Facebook overtook YouTube’s videos on Facebook for the first time in November.

But why is this change occurring? Many marketers and content creators are coming to the realization that there is more value in publishing a video directly to Facebook than there is in uploading a video only to YouTube. One of the great benefits is the fact that videos on Facebook play automatically as a user scrolls through the News Feed. The auto-play functionality draws users to video content without them having to press play. However, further analysis is required as a Facebook video view and a YouTube video view cannot necessarily be considered identical in value. Socialbakers will be conducting further research to determine the quality of YouTube views versus Facebook views, which is an aspect of this change that will be very important for marketers to consider when planning video campaigns.

However, Socialbakers believes that in general terms, Facebook video views are still very meaningful. Jan Rezab, Socialbakers CEO, explained Facebook videos are simply “more natural” to share and interact with than YouTube videos, based on many ideas. For example, the fact they appear in the News Feed makes them highly relevant as it is a key discovery platform. Furthermore, discussions in the comments are generally with a user’s friends rather than with strangers. Facebook also provides a bigger video preview image through the News Feed than the small preview boxes that are displayed on YouTube.

“With a hefty portion of YouTube’s traffic coming from Facebook, this should be of concern to YouTube,” said Rezab. “It’s clear that on Facebook, content creators are increasingly choosing to upload video natively.”

Socialbakers impressive data comes along at a time when Facebook is continuing to test new ways to create revenue from videos. Recently, the social media giant launched the ability for advertisers to serve auto-play video promotions within its mobile apps as part of their app install ads.

And this may be just the beginning. Macquarie Securities analyst Ben Schachter recently predicted that Facebook is developing a dedicated video platform that would directly compete with YouTube. “We are convinced that Facebook will launch a competitor to YouTube and will attract and organize more and more user-generated video content,” said Schachter.