According to a study conducted by eMarketer, the average American adult spends about 68 minutes a day consuming videos on digital devices. Those numbers are a clear indication of how obsessed people are with watching videos online.

Facebook is now slowly rolling out their own video service to users across the globe. Currently, Facebook’s Watch tab is only available to select U.S users but is bound to be released globally in the months to come.

Facebook Watch is set to give YouTube a run for their ad money. Experts are already debating whether or not Facebook’s Watch tab will weaken YouTube, which has already gained the title of the world’s second largest search engine.

Facebook has had a reputation for copying features from other platforms and then blowing them out of the water, but can they go head-to-head against a well-loved social networking giant such as YouTube?

Let’s find out whether Facebook has what it takes to replace the omnipresent video sharing platform that is YouTube.

The Discover Tab in Facebook Watch

What is Facebook Watch?

Facebook has been aggressively pushing videos on their website. They’ve recently taken things up a notch when they launched this big new feature dedicated to digital videos.

Facebook’s Watch tab is set to house original content from select brand partners such as TasteMade, Nas Daily, Humans of New York, and plenty of others. You’ll find a Discover section, along with areas to see the latest episodes from channels you subscribe to and your saved episodes.

According to Mark Zuckerberg, the goal of the new feature is to reimagine video sharing through the lens of community. They want to create an ecosystem where people can connect with one another as they enjoy some of their favorite shows.

Image credit: Nas Daily, Facebook Watch

For now, Facebook is funding some of the shows on their platform. The content creators are earning 55% of the ad revenue while Facebook keeps the remaining 45%.

Facebook plans to open their platform to more users and publishers in the future to help content creation become a competitively lucrative endeavor.

What Advantages Does It Have Over YouTube?

Facebook Watch is a community-based video sharing hub that prioritizes engagement above anything else.

There have also been talks about a dedicated app for Facebook brand partners that can help them engage with their viewers on a separate platform, away from the noise of a busy feed.

While this new feature is still in its early phase, it’s hard to tell whether or not it will offer something significantly different than YouTube. YouTube has a live feature where people can leave comments as the stream is in progress, but many stream chats are notoriously obnoxious and full of trolls, or moving too fast to be of any real value. It will be interesting to see if Facebook can avoid this problem, and set up a system that’s actually fun and effective.

YouTube Is Irreplaceable

Facebook’s Watch tab is sure to cause a divide among the mobile video viewing public but it won’t be replacing YouTube anytime soon.

While Facebook’s Watch seems like a strong contender, it’s far from replacing YouTube as a prime video sharing platform. Facebook’s Watch tab is much too young and lacks a rich repository of content, a trait that currently makes YouTube the second largest search engine on the internet today.

YouTube didn’t invent social videos, but they set the standard. It offers high searchability and entertainment to a global audience, something Facebook Watch can’t offer at the moment.

Image credit: YouTube

YouTube has a 10-year head start in the video sharing sphere that’s hard to beat. It’s also home to over a billion users who are watching and uploading massive amounts of digital content per minute.

Facebook Watch can be a great alternative platform for videos but it doesn’t yet have the foothold to beat and replace an omnipresent platform like YouTube. Perhaps it never will, but it does have a massive user base to work with. What Facebook Watch can definitely do is make video marketing even more competitive for brands and content creators alike.

Now that people have more viewing platforms to choose from, content creators need to give their audiences a more robust selection of videos to keep them engaged and entertained for as long as possible

If you plan on exploring what Facebook Watch has to offer, make sure you keep your YouTube channel afloat by consistently uploading and pushing new content. You also need to maintain an impressive subscriber count to maintain your credibility on the platform.

Purchasing a few thousand YouTube Views and/or Subscribers can help you stay relevant on the platform. You still need to continuously work on your credibility on YouTube if you want to explore other video marketing platforms. This way, all your hard work throughout the years won’t go to waste and you’ll always have a strong presence there to support your more experimental efforts.

You Need A Blended Strategy

Video sharing is bound to get ever more competitive given the rise of new platforms like Facebook Watch.

If you want to stay on top of the game, you need to develop a blended strategy that can help you take advantage of what both YouTube and Facebook Watch have to offer. Winning at video marketing isn’t about choosing sides, it’s about learning how to use each platform for their unique strengths.

Facebook Watch is a relatively new platform that is worth exploring but that doesn’t mean you should abandon your YouTube marketing efforts completely for it. It still has a long way to go before it can offer the searchability and viewership YouTube is currently offering.

You can explore Facebook Watch but that doesn’t mean you should neglect your YouTube channel. If you want to discover what Facebook Watch has to offer, go ahead, just make sure your credibility and progress on YouTube won’t be at a standstill.

Buying a few thousand YouTube Views or Subscribers from a reputable provider should help you maintain a credible and noteworthy reputation on the platform as you explore other video sharing channels. These views will add to your social proof, making your videos more attractive and drawing in organic viewers.

Facebook Watch won’t be replacing YouTube anytime soon but it will surely change how video marketing is conducted in the months to come – and that’s not a bad thing.