Facebook Watch Introduces Video Content, Putting Up A Fight For YouTube And Upping The Video Marketing Game

Facebook watch roped in a fresh new audience, but YouTube has been around for 13 years as the video mogul and this makes the video marketing arena slightly difficult for Facebook to break into in 2018

Team Blue – Facebook Watch

The king of social media draws 2 billion monthly active users every month with 5,00,000 people signing in every day. While the social network is a relative newcomer to the video hosting game, Facebook already has 500 million people watching an accumulated 100 million hours of video content daily.

Team Red – YouTube

YouTube on the other hand attracts an estimated 1.5 billion visitors a day and plays host to 300 hours of new content every minute!

Both the contenders have impressionable figures to their credit, but how does video content on each site actually differ?

Video Length

YouTube videos and Facebook videos serve different purposes in terms of content. YouTube serves a more detailed oriented audience as opposed to it’s social media rival that attracts a far more casual viewing experience with videos auto-playing every 3 seconds as you browse through a page.

Team Blue

Studies reveal that the average duration of a Facebook video is a little over 55 seconds, with the average viewer spending only about a 1/3 of that time on any specific clip. The statistics further go on to show that many of these views are passive in nature and only about 21% of users actually decide to unmute auto-played videos to get the full message behind the content.

Team Red

On the other hand, YouTube users seem to be far more willing to engage with longer and more complex content because of the platform’s credibility towards experts. Studies reveal that only 20% of viewers on the website click away from videos within 10 seconds. The average watch time on YouTube is 10 times more than Facebook.

Search Algorithm

Team Blue

Comparing the search functionality of YouTube against Facebook seems almost unfair. The privacy settings on Facebook makes it hard for search engine crawlers to snapshot and archive viewer pages. This means that when you search for a specific term on Facebook video, you’re more likely to get a mishmash of trending clips that are vaguely associated to your search keywords

Team Red

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world after Google and unsurprisingly both entities share the same parent company as well. The shared search engine makes it easier to seek out relevant content on YouTube. Thanks to this accessibility, as videos on YouTube also remain visible for a longer time span securing credible views in the long run.

Which Platform Wins?

While YouTube videos will certainly offer a higher shelf-life and a better long-term return on investment, Facebook videos are great for building immediate buzz amongst a targeted profile of customers. By using the unique features of each website to your advantage, you can attract and maintain a loyal following for a wider time span.