Facebook will rank videos to prioritize original content

Facebook is going to make changes to the way videos are ranked. The update should result in original content being given a higher priority. With this, the company wants to make it easier for filmmakers and media companies to make money with videos.

The changes are based on three factors or topics: deliberately and repeatedly searched videos, the duration of videos and the viewing time, and the originality. The former means that videos that users deliberately search for, for example via a search bar, will be placed higher. It also plays a role in how often those videos are viewed again.

In addition, more weight is given to videos that capture users’ attention for more than a minute. This is even more true for videos that are at least three minutes long. Finally, weight is given to originality. Sources and pages that mainly distribute videos from other sources are given less priority than the pages that do come with their own content.

Facebook won’t announce when exactly these changes will be made, although the company says the changes will affect not only the video distribution in the News Feed, but also Facebook Watch and the recommendations for watching “more videos”.