While the company announced testing of new features, the service is already ramping up significant viewership.
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The company will allow people to watch clips on a floating screen while continuing to scroll through Facebook like people can do on YouTube. YouTube has slightly more viewership, the majority of it coming off a computer.
Facebook has begun testing the suggested video feature on Web browsers, and planned to do the same with its application tailored for smartphones powered by Google-backed Android software.
In recent months, Facebook has been testing new video features including live video and 360 degree video. The goal is to encourage exploration of multiple related videos once one video has been reviewed from the main news feed.
“While we’re still in the early days of testing, we’re pleased with initial results, which show that people who have suggested videos are discovering and watching more new videos”, Cathcart said.
The series of new features, which include a dedicated Video Feed and a picture-in-picture video player, looks to provide users with more flexibility in watching videos, according to Facebook VP of product management Will Cathcart.
Facebook has been putting a greater emphasis on video recently including changing the news feed algorithm to emphasize video content and rolling out fresh video advertising options for marketers.
The social network has claimed its users watch more than four billion videos daily. “To make it easy to return to the videos you’re interested in, we’ve been testing a button that allows you to save a video to watch later, which can be accessed in your “Saved” bookmark”.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is not giving YouTube breathing space in video ads as the online video market becomes the next target for ad dollars.
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“We’ve also rolled out new video tools for Pages – like updates to Page Insights and video upload improvements – to help video publishers grow their businesses on Facebook”.
