Facebook Video Traffic Dropped By 17% Last Month

Sites include Facebook.com . Published on February 1st, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

The online video statistics are out for December 2011 and whilst the dominance of a few players was consistent with expectations, Facebook had a slight slip. Nothing to give Zuckerberg a headache of course; but enough of a slip to set the analysts thinking.

According to ComScore, who measured the audience numbers for December, Facebook saw a 17% drop in its audience share of online video. This drop saw the social networking giant move into fifth place behind Yahoo and Viacom video properties. For Facebook, the drop in video views may not be significant since it gets most of its traffic through other activities on the platform.

Experts looking at the numbers are however concerned that Facebook may be suffering from consistent decline in video views. They cite the fact that just October 2011, Facebook had knocked Vevo from the number 2 slot after 60 million viewers watch a total of 346 million videos. To move from second to fifth is something Facebook ought to take a look at; after all, it could speak to some glitch in the viewing experience on Facebook.

Facebook’s competitors are no doubt gleeful at the change in its fortune. YouTube for instance is still dominating audience share, and since Vevo retained its second slot, it has been consistent at maintaining its position.

This may not be significant right now but we’ll keep an eye on ComScore data as it relates to Facebook and video views.