We all know that when it comes to watching videos online, there is no place better than YouTube for that. Or is it?
2017 saw a lot of streaming wars between Internet giants such as Facebook, YouTube, and Netflix, and others all competing to become the best video platform online, or at least get a share of video views.
YouTube has been the dominant video platform in recent years, it has made it very easy and convenient for people to watch videos on both desktop and laptop. As well as handsomely rewarding content creators. To this date, YouTube is still the go-to video platform of choice for video producers possibly due to YouTube’s more reliable advertisers and monetization strategies.
With that said, Facebook is quickly catching up.
YouTube competitor, Facebook watch
Recently, Facebook has been focusing more and more on video — due to the increase of use and consumption of video content online.
As a result, the demand for video-related content has never been so high. According to MWPdigital media, 55% of users watch videos online on a daily basis.
For this reasons, Facebook has introduced a new feature for a limited number of users in the U.S. called Watch. Facebook watch is designed to allow users to discover videos outside of their news feed more easily using a watchlist tab. Videos are going to be displayed in a personalized manner and in relation to the user’s interests and the interests of their friends.
Facebook shows and episodes
Facebook watch looks very similar to YouTube, enabling users to easily find video-related content as well as new episodes and shows from their favorite artists.
This new exciting feature will be available on all devices — desktop, mobile, laptop, and TV apps.
Content creators will be able to engage their fans and community in a more exciting way by having the ability to create different video formats such as daily episodes and live events.
It has also been rumored that partners and content creators who produce original content solely for Facebook will be able to make 55% of revenue from ad breaks displayed in their Facebook Watch shows, providing a 45% cut to Facebook.
The Facebook team seems to be pretty excited about this new feature, hoping that publishers will have an improved channel to more effectively engage their audience and improve Facebook’s user experience, as well as getting their users to ditch YouTube in favor of Facebook watch.
Overall, this is very exciting news for video content publishers like myself, I publish live video shows on Facebook about entrepreneurship and digital marketing on a daily basis.