It's official: Google blew it with YouTube, and Facebook has caught up

It's official. Google blew it.

Fortune has a story out about Facebook's huge investment in video in which writer Erin Griffith reports: "In April, Facebook hit 4 billion views per day, matching the latest estimates available for 10-year-old YouTube."

Here are some other notes from the story:

• Facebook's 4 billion daily views are up fourfold from a year ago.
• This is a core mission for Facebook. Facebook has become "synonymous with mobile," Facebook ad exec Carolyn Everson says. "I think that the next frontier is becoming synonymous with mobile video."
• People used to share video from other sites on Facebook. In February, however, "70% of Facebook's videos were uploaded directly," Griffith reports.
• Video is working for publishers. BuzzFeed had 500 million video views on Facebook in April. Mic had 33 million in two months from eight videos.
• Griffith: "Complex Media reports average completion rates of 78% for its Facebook videos, which last two to 10 minutes."
• Facebook has tweaked its News Feed algorithm to favor video. If you have a page with a million followers, your photos will reach 14% of your followers, your text-only posts will reach 4%, and your videos will reach 35%.
• Facebook suddenly got so many views by turning on "autoplay" for videos, which start playing without sound as soon as users scroll over them.
• Facebook believes autoplay is "magical," "awesome," and "completely rad" - a not super obvious way to force-feed users with video. (For now!)

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