Facebook Ranks As Top 3 Video Sites: Who Should Be Nervous?
While MySpace has been drawing attention lately for acquiring every i-related music service in sight, this week also saw some interesting developments on the Facebook front. According to Nielsen’s latest VideoCensus numbers, Facebook jumped to No. 3 behind video powerhouses YouTube and Hulu in terms of total streams, up from No. 10 just last month. And while a good number of those 217 million streams in October come from personal footage posted and the viral video clips embedded from YouTube and elsewhere shared and shared again via walls and newsfeeds, we wondered in terms of entertainment content directed at the youth market who might be worried about this upward momentum?
Hulu. A few months back Facebook debuted the early premiere of NBC (and Hulu owner) show “Community” to semi-successful results (check out the show’s fairly active Facebook fan page). Although the demo there skews slightly older, by leveraging these latest healthy stats to networks, we might see even more premium youth-targeted content being snatched away from Hulu, the reigning site for streaming quality full-length episodes. Especially given the added social potential (an area Hulu hasn’t exactly nailed) to gain and interact with fans of the show.
MySpace. It’s no secret that music is playing a key role in the MySpace comeback plan. Just this week there was confirmation of the acquisition of stream service imeem and the debut of a beta version of MySpace Music Charts (already being called Billboard 2.0). But meanwhile, as the generally skeptical media and a nervous music industry assess how much these new partnerships are worth, Facebook is apparently starting to make inroads with music videos. This month both hip hop artist Chamillionaire and pop singer Shakira, respectively, decided to circumvent the traditional MTV route to premiere their latest music videos to fans on Facebook through Ustream. Each debut saw extremely positive results — with Shakira racking up 95,000 views and Chamillionaire seeing more than 90,000 total views during their initial broadcasts, and both probably gaining more than a few new Facebook fans (and a way to continue connecting/advertising to them). As more artists catch wind of these successes and more record labels get used to the idea, it’s not hard to imagine others doing the same. And while this isn’t to say that the trend would completely take the air out of MySpace’s new “entertainment hub” (MySpace Music is still a potential powerhouse and the data-focused features and exclusive live coverage of ”New Moon” red carpet action are solid incentives for the 16-30 demo), it might mean the underdog and Owen Van Natta will have to work a little harder to stay in the game.
With user engagement and an emphasis on the social broadcast blasted by every “share”, “like” or comment, Facebook does have considerable weight to throw around in the video territory, especially with the teens that are still visiting on a daily basis. Ypulse readers, what do you think? Will we continue to see these streams and views moving up?