Mobile video has been there for quite a while where it was mostly dominated by YouTube in the online video sector. However, there has been a change in the force where video views on Facebook have steadily explosively grown to the point that it is threatening YouTube for the crown as the top online video platform. However, Facebook and YouTube should be uneasy as Snapchat is seriously raking in view counts that are in the same league as both platforms.
According to a report by Bloomberg, Snapchat users generate more than 7 billion views per day, which is staggering and compares favourably with Facebook’s count of 8 billion per day.When you consider that Snapchat has 200 million active users and Facebook has over 7 times that, Snapchat users are indeed very active.
So what is driving Snapchat’s insane video views count to meteoric levels? Stories is the culprit. For those people who don’t use Snapchat, Stories is the screen within the app that lets people share video clips of what they are doing and they self destruct after a day.
What does this mean for the relatively young startup? Revenues of course is the major focus for the company as they seek to fully monetize and stop relying on financing. They have tried approaches like the 3V strategy, charging users to watch Snaps on the Stories page and to buy Lenses to spice up their selfies. They also have the discover page where other publishers pay to have their own dedicated channel to display their content. This year can be a big move for the company and if they properly capitalize on their rather unique high video views, its current $16 billion valuation will definitely rise.
