APTwitter CEO Dick Costolo's Twitter feed may be packed with autoplaying videos soon.Twitter is debating internally whether to launch a feature that would see videos begin to automatically as users scroll through their timelines, sources have told Adweek.
One industry insider called the debate "a tug of war." It's a move that would no doubt please advertisers, as more people's eyes would be attracted to their branded content and ads, but could send users running as videos begin to clutter up the feed.
Twitter autoplay video would build on the company's Amplify ad program, where it works with sports and entertainment brands to sell sponsorships against live-streamed video. Autoplay video may have been the vision behind Twitter's June acquisition of SnappyTV, a service that allows for the clipping, editing and sharing of clips from live broadcasts in near real-time. An autoplay feature could also help drive up the price of Twitter video ads, which a source told Adweek are relatively cheap at around 2 cents per view, versus $1 per view on other social platforms.
Business Insider has spoken to several industry sources about the potential autoplay video rollout. None could confirm they had heard of an autoplay launch date, but all agreed it would make sense as Twitter continues its "Facebookification." Twitter is also playing catchup to Facebook-owned Instagram, which announced earlier this week it has overtaken Twitter in terms of users - and Instagram has an autoplay video feature too.
Jan Rezab, CEO of social media analytics company Socialbakers, told Business Insider: "Twitter already has auto-expand photos in the feed - and remember, it was the first to launch autoplay, with Vine [although these don't autoplay in the feed, only when they are expanded] - but with Facebook's autoplay videos and YouTube announcing a few days ago it will launch autoplay, Twitter has been left behind.
"Autoplay is much more attractive because it just works better. Facebook is proving that, it is accumulating huge amounts of video views."
Data from Socialbakers given to Business Insider earlier this month showed that for the first time ever, Facebook Page owners uploaded more videos directly to Facebook than sharing YouTube videos in November. It appears Facebook's autoplay video feature is so attractive, it's carving off a huge slice of YouTube's audience.
Socialbakers
Socialbakers also found Facebook videos drive more engagement than YouTube videos shared on the platform.
Socialbakers