Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is set on acquiring start-up QuickFire Video Networks Corp., intending to use its video technology to improve the social network’s platform for delivering video content to its users, and in the process making it more viable to monetize such platform. Announcing the deal in its own website, QuickFire said that it will help the social media giant to “deliver high quality video experiences to all the people who consume video on Facebook,” noting that its ultimate goal is “to provide a premium quality, immediate, bandwidth-friendly video experience to consumers.”
QuickFire has the technology that allows it to convert and download videos using lesser bandwidth while maintaining its quality. Such an advantage will be useful for Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) as it is working towards keeping its video-consuming users within the service instead of having them link to videos from other video hosting sites such as Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s YouTube. With QuickFire’s technology around to speed up the process of uploading videos to the site, Facebook can also have more leverage over how videos are displayed both for purposes of consumption and advertising. In a report by Bloomberg, EMarketer Inc. is cited as estimating that online video advertising in the U.S. will surge 30 percent this year to $7.8 billion, up from last year’s $6 billion.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has updated its video platform last year so that videos automatically play in users news feeds, taking note of the importance of delivering video content as fast as possible. The social network reported this week that it counts an average of 1 billion video views per day. On the other hand, there is a 75 percent increase in users’ video posts globally, with the U.S. recording a 94 percent growth in users’ video posts.
With more than 50 percent of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s most active users consuming at least 1 video per day, advertisers can increasingly leverage the social media giant’s platform for video advertising, with analysts seeing video as a way to boost Facebook sales. In a statement e-mailed to Bloomberg, Facebook spokeswoman Vanessa Chan said that “video is an essential part of the Facebook experience.” Noting the new role of QuickFire within the platform, she continued to emphasize that they will “continue delivering a high-quality video experience to the over 1.3 billion people who use Facebook.” On the other hand, QuickFire CEO Craig Y. Lee said in a statement that some of the start-up’s key key staff will be absorbed by Facebook as QuickFire winds down its own operations.
This article has been written by Nonito Guntan.
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