Dive Brief:

• Facebook and YouTube have both engaged in a battle to see how they measure against each other in viewership numbers.
• Their methods for calculating viewership vary. Facebook counts a view three seconds after the video has started playing.
• YouTube's method is more vague and focuses on seeing how much the person engaged with the video. So, in certain cases, quality is more valuable than quantity.

Dive Insight:

YouTube's viewership analytics teach marketers valuable lessons. In 2012, YouTube made a change in its search engine, making recommendations to users based on video engagement as opposed to number of videos clicked on. This change has contributed to YouTube's growth in watch time, which has increased by 60% in the second quarter, compared to last year's same quarter.

Hank Green, VidCon founder and YouTube star, demonstrated through a blog post how the different measurements affected how he interpreted the success of one of his videos. When he uploaded a video on both platforms, he received 300,000 views on Facebook and 150,000 views on YouTube. Looking more closely however, he noticed that people were engaging more with his video on YouTube. His YouTube clip retained 86% of its viewers, while his Facebook clip only retained 21%.

Jamie Byrne, director of content strategy at YouTube, further elaborated on user engagement, saying, “If you’re optimizing for views, you will make decisions on content that get people to click on thumbnails to drive up the number. Do you want somebody to watch just two seconds, or watch for two minutes?”