The Tenth Year of YouTube's Activity; Intense Competition with Facebook

Ten years have passed since the launch of the video-sharing social network 'YouTube', which began its activity by broadcasting a clip titled 'Me at the Zoo'. This website, now owned by Google, dominates video streaming and sharing on the internet. But how long will this monopoly last? According to Reuters, Facebook reported on the second of Ordibehesht that its subscribers currently watch four billion videos daily on this social network. This figure was about three billion in January of this year - around four months ago - and about one billion in September 2014. The announcement of this statistic regarding Facebook's increasing share in online video was enough for several stock trading companies on the third of Ordibehesht to raise their forecasts for Facebook's stock value. Meanwhile, in the first quarter of this year, the company's revenue growth rate was the lowest it has been in the past two years. According to some experts, one of the important areas for increasing Facebook's revenue is video advertising. 'Mark Mahoney', an expert from a financial investment firm, states: 'The internet is losing its former role in video and mobile advertising, and Facebook may be the biggest winner of this change.' According to his assessment, Facebook's stock price will increase by about $17, rising from $88 to $105. Google does not publish statistics on YouTube's traffic or revenue figures, but it has stated that in January 2012, YouTube's daily traffic exceeded four billion visits. This was seven years after 'Jawed Karim', one of the founders of YouTube, published a video of his trip to the zoo on this nascent network. An investment calculation institute estimates that daily visits to YouTube will reach eight billion by the end of this year, with its revenue reaching $5.9 billion. This institute also predicts that Facebook's revenue from video display will reach one billion dollars this year. Facebook launched its automated video ad playback tool in 2014. The share of mobile ads in Facebook's total revenue from commercial ads increased from 59% to 73% in the first quarter of this year. 'Sheryl Sandberg', Facebook's COO, said on the second of Ordibehesht: 'We believe that given the important role of video for mobile phones, many companies in the market will turn to this method in the future.' She added: 'Today, over 75% of video views on Facebook are done through mobile phones, and we believe this method will gain more importance in the coming years.' Reuters reminds that the revenue figures for Facebook in the first quarter of this year indicate that the overall revenue growth rate of the company was lower than what the financial market had predicted. However, in terms of commercial ads, the company's revenue increased by 46% in the first quarter to about $3.3 billion. Facebook's stock price at the end of trading on the second of Ordibehesht showed an increase of about 30% compared to the previous year.