Facebook ends YouTube’s unrivaled dominance of online video

You can find a German version of this article here.

Not everyone has realized it yet, but a fight about one of the most important sectors of the digital industry is getting increasingly intense and dramatic. I am talking about video platforms. For ten years, the name YouTube has been synonymous with user generated videos as well as with video on the web in general. But while the Google-owned site just celebrated its 10th anniversary, another player is questioning the dominant position of YouTube, attacking the pioneer with full force: Facebook.

Only two years ago Facebook did not have a lot to do with video. Users have certainly been able to upload clips to the site for a very long time. But this never was a crucial element of the social network. And definitely not a strategically important feature. Until 2013. Around that time, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the management team must have made the decision to make video one of the core parts of the Facebook experience and monetization machine. The incentives for such a move are obvious: Videos are a very suitable media type for ad placements. Furthermore they make users stick around and spend more time with Facebook instead of other sites or apps. Continue Reading