Much of this spending will flow to videos consumed on social platforms like Facebook and Snapchat, while spending on traditional media continues its slow decline, the presentation suggests. (While consumers spend 36% of their time watching television, advertisers spend a disproportionate 39% of their money there). The Atlantic has gone so far as to call mobile media “the new television.”
Facebook, in particular, looks set to benefit from this shift. The company has recently placed much greater emphasis on video. Facebook began testing Periscope-like live video streaming in December 2015, expanding the service to US iPhone users in January and hosting high-profile Q&As. A new “Continuous Live Video API” promises the potential to stream 24-hour live broadcasts.
At the time of writing, Mark Zuckerberg has just used Facebook Live to broadcast a feed of himself chatting with astronauts on the International Space Station, and UK Prime Minster David Cameron is preparing to take questions via the service. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you fast-forward five years and most of the content that people see on Facebook and are sharing on a day-to-day basis is video,” Zuckerberg told BuzzFeed News.
