eMarketer: Facebook is the most popular social platform for watching and posting videos

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According to a new eMarketer report, “Video Advertising: How Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Snapchat Are Changing the Rules,” video advertising on Facebook and other social platforms will grow rapidly in 2015. Facebook is particularly strong in this regard, even putting pressure on YouTube, which eMarketer predicts currently accounts for 20% of U.S. video ad spending.

Facebook isn’t the only platform eyeing a piece of the video ad pie. Twitter is beta testing Promoted Videos, Instagram is rolling out video ads, and Tumblr and Snapchat also have new video ad products.

Cisco Systems predicted in June 2014 that video will account for 80% to 90% of global consumer Internet traffic by 2018. If Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms have their way, they will become a significant part of the video channel.

According to data released by comScore in October 2014, Facebook has become the second largest online video platform in the United States. This ranking only includes PC viewers and does not include mobile.

Platforms like YouTube and streaming video players still attract many netizens, and more netizens use social platforms to watch videos than news websites, etc. According to a 2014 Google and TNS survey, 73% of North American netizens use video websites or applications to watch digital videos.

Considering that YouTube is owned by Google, the TNS and Google surveys may be biased. However, a June 2014 Frank N. Magid Associates survey showed similar results, with 33% of U.S. digital video viewers using Facebook, lagging behind YouTube's 75%, but Facebook's share is higher than other well-known video services such as Netflix and Hulu.

Social platforms can provide a different viewing experience than YouTube or TV network streaming players. The main difference is the ability to easily share and comment with other users.

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge typifies this difference, in which Facebook users not only wanted to upload their own challenge videos, but also wanted to use Facebook's sharing and tagging features to encourage others to watch and participate.

As social media becomes a platform for consumers to watch and share videos and marketers to publish videos, video advertising is also expected to grow.

Compiled from: eMarketer Translator: Sun Ying