@socialbakers trend of @Facebook Video – @YouTube ditched for Facebook’s Social Media Garden and Twitteratti Twitter

“This is not a statistical anomaly. We have specific examples of brands that only shared YouTube Videos and then started only sharing Facebook Videos”

Socialbakers CEO Jan Rezab commenting on the shift from Sharing and interacting with YouTube Videos to Facebook Videos

YouTube’s empire is slowly beginning to show signs of crumbling!

First it’s Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer making a play for Celebrity YouTubers to move their accounts over to Yahoo owned Tumblr in exchange for higher split of advertising revenue as noted in my blog article entitled “Marissa Mayer's Yahoo Tumblr Partner Program - 30-70 Split to attract YouTube Stars, Value Brands and Grassroots Fans as Youtube's Kingdom Crumbles”.

Now comes word that YouTube is getting a challenge for Video supremacy within the confines of Facebook’s Social Network Garden. This as more Facebook members are choosing to share and interact with Videos uploaded to Facebook than with YouTube links embedded within Facebook based on the statistical analysis of Social media analytics company, Socialbakers, as noted in the article “Facebook Is Challenging YouTube For Video Supremacy (On Facebook)”, published 10/16/2014 @ 2:48PM by Jeff Bercovici, Forbes.

What’s more, Facebook seems to be encouraging this trend, having recently in September 2014 added a Video counter so that Facebook Video uploaders can know how many people have interacted with their Video as noted in the article “Facebook Videos gain a counter, just like on YouTube”, published September 8, 2014 10:36 AM PDT by Don Reisinger, CNET News.

Socialbakers trend of increasing Facebook Video – YouTube getting ditched for Homegrown Facebook Content

Socialbakers first spotted the trend after studying some 180,000 Video Posts across 20,000 Facebook pages over a twelve (12) month period. What they noticed can be represented using two (2) graphs:

1.      Share of number of Video Posts i.e. how many persons share the Videos that they post to their Facebook Wall

2.      Share of Interactions i.e. how many people actually click and watch these Videos

The results are shocking, especially when you consider the scope ouf YouTube’s offering and the ease with which YouTube makes it possible to share hyperlinks to their Videos to Facebook.

First the Socialbakers Graph showing the Share of number of Video Posts:

If that's a shocker, and I'm sure it must be if you knew how popular YouTube Content is, then the increasing percentage share of interactions for Facebook Videos as opposed to YouTube Videos should stun you into stony silence. Enter the Socialbakers Graph showing the Share of Interactions:

Facebook Videos easier to share - YouTube losing big to Walled Social Media Garden

The reason? Easier interaction.

To share a YouTube Video on Facebook requires that you get the shortened hyperlink to share that Video as noted in my blog article entitled “How to use Dropbox, Google Drive and Sound File Sharing Websites to Share and Promote your Content online - Sharing is Caring”.  

Believe it or not, despite my graphics-laden article, not everyone is that technically adept. Worse, in order to share some Videos, you have to be a member of YouTube, forcing you to have a Google+ Account. Many Facebook faithful loath the lack of true Social interaction within Google+ pristine Social Media Wilderness!

A Facebook Video i.e. Video Content that is uploaded to Facebook directly is fairly easy to share by just clicking the Share Button and choosing who can see your shared post.

If you want to share your Facebook Pictures or Videos on other Social Media Websites via a hyperlink or even embed your Facebook pictures of Videos from your Timeline, Facebook makes that easy to do as well as noted in my blog article entitled “How to share and embed Facebook Photos, Albums and Videos to Share and Promote your Content Online - Sharing is Caring”.

According to Facebook, 65% of their Facebook Videos are viewed on Mobile devices as declared in their Facebook Newsroom post entitled “The Latest on Facebook Video”, published September 7, 2014 By Fidji Simo, Product Management Director, Facebook Newsroom.

Interestingly YouTube’s own statistics state that only 40% of their Videos are viewed on Mobile Devices. Very interesting indeed, considering that YouTube is practically baked into Google Android OS on smartphones, which should makes it easier for a smartphone users to just slip over to their YouTube App to view a Video.

Apparently that’s not the case, as they may be locked into Facebook or Twitter, making opening up a new app seem unnecessary when the videos are right there in your Facebook Timeline.

Looks like Facebook's got an edge in the Mobile world ever since they’ve launched Nearby Friends in April 2014 as chronicled in my blog articles entitled “Facebook launches Nearby Friends feature - WhatsApp VoIP and Oculus Rift VR Wearable Computing Takes flight as FB look towards the Future in the Year of the Horse”.

Later that same month, they also launched their own News Service, Facebook Newsroom as reported in my blog articles entitled “Facebook launches FB Newswire with Verified News from Storyful - Facebook's a bonafide Social Media Newspaper coming soon to a Oculus Rift Smartglasses near you”. 

Facebook also has good luck too, as the increasing 4G LTE deployments by Telecom Providers globally means that, Streaming, be it Video or Audio from any source and not just YouTube via a smartphone of Tablet, is now the growing Trend as pointed out in my blog article entitled “RIAA Stats on Music Streaming – Why 4G LTE and Cheaper Cloud Storage means downloads extinct”.

Facebook monetizing Video Uploading - Facebook’s Social Media Garden and Twitteratti Twitter-verse

Just remember to use a URL shortening service such as TinyURL or Bit.ly to compress and share on Twitter. Even better, signing up to Adf.ly allows you to monetize your Facebook Pictures and Videos whenever you share them outside of Facebook.

And that may be the next thing that Facebook might do; allow Facebook Video posters to make money by placing Ads in their Videos in a manner akin to YouTube. Socialbakers CEO Jan Rezab claiming that he knows of specific brands that have switched from YouTube to uploading and sharing Video directly from Facebook due to the ease of sharing Content on Social Media.

Suddenly, YouTube’s problems may have doubled, as if their offer is attractive enough, then Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s offer of increased Ad revenue on Tumblr may not be the only game in town.

Especially now that Facebook’s close to launching a Buy Button to enable E-Commerce on their Social Media Platform as noted in my blog article entitled “Facebook kills Gifts and presses Buy Button - How Facebook One-Click Purchases will start an Apple-esque Smurfberries-style Scandal”.

Twitter also has plans for a Buy Button as well as noted in my blog article entitled “Twitter’s one-click Buy Button – How One-Click E-Commerce is Twitter’s Great Smurfberry Scam Confessions of a Shopaholic” with an equally obscure date for launch and no confirmation from the company.

Good to note too that Twitter in August 2014 had acquired MadBits, a year-old company that has a Deep Learning Platform that specializes in Artificial Vision i.e. Artificial Intelligence applied to the contextual recognition of photos and Videos as noted in my blog article entitled “Twitter buys Madbits – How Torch7 powered Artificial Vision will make Twitter more like Facebook”.

Thus advertising place in pictures or Vine Videos based on the context of the Videos would make for a more targeted approach to advertising and allow them to woo away some major brands advertising on YouTube.

Google's YouTube may start losing big advertisers eager to get a slice of Facebook’s Walled Social Media Garden and the Twitteratti in the Twitter-verse!