Every month new viewing figures for online video are released and they tend to follow a similar pattern – YouTube at the top, and everyone else scrabbling for top 10 positions. However, this month saw something different, with Facebook surprising everyone by jumping to third.
Online Video Stats
Nielsen, as well as a number of other companies, measure the number of streams viewed on online video destinations every month.
October was no exception, although the figures were more interesting than usual. mainly because while the top two of YouTube and Hulu remained the same, there were some big changes after that. And it could be the start of a trend set to get stronger over the next few months/years.
YouTube Beats All-Comers
First, the non-surprise. YouTube topped the Nielsen chart for streams in the United States by a huge margin. The Google-owned site racked up 6,632,964,000 streams and 105,923,000 viewers.
Hulu ranked second as it has for a goods few months now. The site managed 632,662,000 streams and 13,472,000 viewers, which though impressive enough isn’t even a tenth of the numbers YouTube can boast.
Facebook Jumps To Third
Then the surprise hits. Facebook has jumped from number 10 to number three in the space of a single month. The social networking site racked up 217,765,000 streams and 31,594,000 viewers – the latter being more than double the number enjoyed by Hulu.
According to CNET, Nielsen Vice President of Media Analytics Jon Gibs, said in a statement:
“Facebook’s rapid growth in online video during the last year illustrates the site’s evolution from simply a communications focused tool to a media portal.”
“Social networking sites are evolving from a venue for catching up with friends to a platform for personal expression, allowing consumers to share their experiences in the full variety of content formats available online.”
Conclusions
This is a potentially pivotal moment for Facebook as it could (and only could) signal a new trend where YouTube is being abandoned in favor for the social networking site.
Facebook has millions of users worldwide who want to share videos with their friends and family and the system Facebook has built-in provides everything they need to do so.
While I can’t see Facebook ever catching YouTube for sheer number of streams every month, Hulu is certainly catchable.
