Snapchat now shows 6 billion videos a day; ...set to catch up with Facebook's 8 billion

Snapchat is gunning for Facebook's crown when it comes to watching videos on our phones.

The firm, which is best known for its self-destructing messages and photos, has revealed it is now serving around six billion video views a day - three times the number it reported in May.

By comparison, rival Facebook has eight billion video views a day and this figure has doubled since April.

Market research firm eMarketer has predicted digital video revenues will rise by 42 per cent this year to $7.5 billion (£5 billion) in the US, while Forrester Research has estimated ad spending will hit $12.6 billion (£8.4 billion) in the US by 2019.

It is partially Snapchat's harnessing of this booming area that led to it being valued at up to $19 billion (£13 billion) earlier this year, making its decision to reject Facebook's $3 billion (£2 billion) bid two years ago, a good one.

Last week, Facebook's founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said: 'Over the next few years, video is going to be some of the most engaging content online.'

He revealed that 500 million people watch videos on its site or app every day.

Facebook counts a video playing for over three seconds as a 'view,' while Snapchat only needs a video to be loaded to count.

Meanwhile, a video has to play for more than 30 seconds in YouTube for Google to count it as a view, making it hard to fairly compare the major players in the online video space.

Facebook is currently testing a new page dedicated to video in its app, but it could be a while before it eclipses YouTube, which has more than one billion monthly active users.

By comparison, Snapchat has 100 million daily active users.


Credit: Sarah Griffiths/DailyMail