Facebook vs Youtube
Facebook continues to ramp up it’s video service and aims to compete with Youtube. Last Wednesday the social network said it will begin sharing revenue with it’s most popular publishers. The revenue split mirrors that of Youtube with a 55% split going to content creators and 45% going to the platform.
The Differences
There are some key differences between the two and how they display video ads. Youtube shares ads on a pre roll basis, showing ads before the users desired content, whereas Facebook will show ads on autoplay in the new Suggested Video stream. With this knew video strategy Facebook may have a competitive advantage over Youtube because they have a greater ability to show ads based on context. For example, Facebook knows you like soccer because you click videos about soccer, now they will show video ads based on that context. This will hopefully make video ads more valuable to content creators. The other key difference between the two platforms is how content creators make money. We’ve all heard the stories of a video going viral on Youtube and individuals raking in the monthly revenue stream. That’s not how it will work in Facebook’s strategy. They’ve copied the strategy of traditional TV and teamed up with companies who have large followings like the NFL to share the spoils of revenue.
Have you noticed a change in your Facebook news feed? What do you think of the new strategy?