There has been a flood of stories and reports recently that say that Facebook is catching YouTube in total number of videos being displayed. While there is no doubt that Facebook has become a major player in the video display market, they might not be quite as big as they have been letting on. According to recently confirmed information, YouTube and Facebook use some very different measurements to determine total views.
YouTube doesn’t count a view as being viewed until the watcher has seen about 30 seconds of the video. Facebook, on the other hand, only requires about 3 seconds of the video to play before it is considered a view. This is a huge difference and may account for much of the gains that Facebook is seeing against YouTube.
When people are scrolling through Facebook, for example, the videos are often set to automatically begin to play. If a user is scrolling slowly, they can easily see three seconds of the video before the scroll right past. While there was no actual user engagement, Facebook will count that as a view.
Of course, the average video on Facebook is likely smaller in length because people are frequently posting up quick videos that they took on their smart phones. YouTube on the other hand, has a lot more long videos.
Whatever the case, marketers will want to make sure they are using both Facebook and YouTube (and any other platforms they can find) to share their marketing videos. When weighing user interaction, however, it is important to know how each of the platforms determines whether or not your video has been viewed.
