For the longest time YouTube has been the go-to place to find and watch videos online, and in most cases it still is. Facebook has been slowly creeping up on YouTube as of late though bringing a more heavy-handed approach to the video market than it has in past years, having recently stated that Facebook users watch a collective of 100 million hours of videos each and every day. When it comes right down to it, combined with the focus on video within the social platform, Facebook’s sheer number of users makes it easy to see how that many hours of video are being viewed on a daily basis. Despite this, it’s still nowhere near the number of hours of video viewed on YouTube each day.
Google’s now-CEO Sundar Pichai spoke during today’s Alphabet earnings call and was quick to focus attention on YouTube’s viewing collective, stating that their numbers are far above Facebook with hundreds of millions of hours of videos views every single day. There wasn’t a specific number given, but hundreds of millions is certainly quite a lot more than 100 million, and even if YouTube’s views were just barely above 200 million, that’s still double what Facebook has in its current state.
What does that say about YouTube? That it’s still THE place to watch video on the web, whether you’re looking for something funny, endearing, creepy, or informative, chances are you can find it on YouTube. What it also might say is that in just the short amount of time Facebook has been putting effort into increasing their own video platform, they have been able to reach quite a high number of viewing hours, which might suggest that YouTube needs to step it up. Having said that, the rumored amount of viewing hours on YouTube is said to have reached an excess of somewhere around 500 million hours last July, and while that number hasn’t been confirmed by YouTube, that’s an insane amount and much more than Facebook, and it’s likely to have only grown between then and now. Putting it bluntly, YouTube is doing just fine with the amount of viewing hours that happen on their site, and although there is always room to improve no matter who you are, YouTube still has online video in the bag.