Lara O’Reilly says, “Gobble, gobble.

YouTube’s dominance of the worldwide video market is under threat as Facebook continues to ramp up its charge to increase its share of the lucrative online video market.

In recent months Facebook began seeding autoplay videos into the News Feed, shortly followed by premium autoplay video ads; the company has increased its mentions of the importance of video in its quarterly earnings and investor calls; and it is reportedly actively trying to poach YouTube stars to create content made specifically for its platform.

The results of energized video strategy are plain to see. Facebook’s key metrics when it comes to video are on the up, while YouTube’s are on the wane. For the last decade YouTube has had a virtual monopoly over online video views – “YouTube” is almost as much of a verb to video as “Google” is to search – but soon it could be in the middle of an existential crisis”.

CHARTS: Facebook Is Gobbling Up YouTube’s Audience

Business Insider