As our camera technology improves, so do our means of shooting videos. You can Snapchat a video of a basketball game, Instagram a video of your cousin’s wedding, film your surfing vacation with a GoPro, or you can even resort to the archaic task of taking videos on an actual camera. The point is, video is everywhere these days, and it has never been easier. Where do these videos usually end up? Facebook and Youtube - both of which are making waves in the market and introducing new features.

Facebook has long been the go-to for sharing photos and videos. Users share personal anecdotes with their own timelines or by posting on a friend’s wall (I can’t deny I have shared the occasional Jimmy Fallon clip or cute puppy video). As such, we have become accustomed to seeing video footage as we scroll through our newsfeeds. Now, the ever adapting Facebook has created a new feature that they are testing which allows videos to pop out of your newsfeed into a mini window when you click a new button. This window can be moved anywhere you like and will play the video as you scroll through your newsfeed as long as you do not leave the page. You will still be able to like the video or share it at any point. Currently, newsfeed videos play when you pass them while scrolling your news feed but stop as soon as you pass it. While this new feature has the potential to be unnecessary or even distracting for Facebook users, it will be interesting to see how it affects the perusing experience.

 In other video news, video platform Youtube has reportedly reached 240 billion monthly video views. Forty-two percent of these monthly views belong to the 100 largest multi-channel networks (MCNs), and as the number of monthly views climbs, so does the value of these MCNs. The Guardian reports that the average price paid for an MCN is $0.10 per monthly view on their network. And when certain MCNs (there are an estimated 22 of these networks) have over 1 billion monthly views, it can come out to around $100 million. Richard Broughton of Ampere has brought up the point that MCNs are an “extremely effective” way for those in media to reach younger audiences and also to experiment with program and content. Clearly there is no slowing Youtube and video down as it remains an extremely profitable outlet with the ability to reach billions of viewers.

Video has proven to be a source of marketing and outreach, of personal sharing, and also of entertainment. Facebook and Youtube together have access to large audience bases and make video viewing and sharing simple. Content “goes viral” and is seen across the world for a reason: video is popular and easy to watch and share. Youtube provides a large amount of the content, and Facebook provides a great platform to share it on. Both are ensuring that video is becoming an increasingly important part of our daily lives.