Facebook seems intent on making video content one of its big growth areas, based on the website’s continued investment in delivery of the same. Earlier this week, we told you that the social networking giant was testing a new feature in its video platform where users can drag a video around a page by simply clicking on a specific icon just like how you would see on high end Samsung phones. This feature is particularly useful in multitasking, where a user can watch a video, while still scrolling the homepage.
Now Facebook has added a new improvement to its video offering by addition of the “watch later” option on videos uploaded directly to the site. The social network begun the silent roll out of the feature for its desktop users and appears as a littler tab on the right-hand corner of a video uploaded directly to Facebook. If the user decides to save the video for later, they need to scroll to the left side of the News Feed, under the saved tab where they find their videos. The feature is similar to to “watch later” function offered by Google’s Youtube.
Facebook is seemingly taking the battle to Google’s front yard, with the video offering. According to research by Ampere analysis, “The social network’s video views are rocketing and recent trials with content owners suggest it’s primed to become a plausible alternative to YouTube” However, Ampere Analysis also highlighted although Facebook’s views were on the rise, it “hasn’t yet been able to compete with YouTube’s ability to deliver revenue returns to content creators through its huge engaged audiences across the globe.” Other significant improvements to video have included the addition of an ad supported video feature called suggested videos, that proposes revenue sharing with content creators. It is also tweaking its algorithm, to allow more users of the social network easily access video content.
