Facebook users watch over a billion videos every day

Facebook reports that users have started seeing significantly more videos. The social networking site reports that it has been playing more than a billion videos a day since July. Facebook also comes with a number of new features in the field of video.

The number of videos played increased by 50 percent between May and July, according to Facebook, to reach more than one billion videos viewed per day. Of these, 65 percent were viewed via a mobile device, Variety writes. Much of that increase will be due to videos that automatically start when people scroll past them in their Facebook feed. How many people actually watch the videos is unknown.

Facebook has also announced that it will offer a number of new features in the field of online videos. For example, users will soon be able to see how many views a video has, a possibility that YouTube has offered for quite some time. Also, the video player will show related videos when a clip is finished, also a feature that can be found on YouTube.

Last year, Facebook already introduced auto-playing videos to its users’ timeline, while the social networking site is also trying to serve up more video content to its users. Facebook is thus on its way to become a serious competitor to Google’s YouTube. The company also believes it can generate more advertising revenue and keep its users longer on its website and within its mobile apps.