Snapchat's daily video views soar to 6 billion, closing in on Facebook
Facebook videos average 8 billion views a day
Mobile app Snapchat became famous for its one-on-one messaging — complete with its blink-and-you'll-miss-it photos — but now it is booming with video traffic, averaging about six billion video views every day.
Shannon Kelly, a spokeswoman for Snapchat, confirmed the number with CBC News in a written statement on Monday, but would not provide any further comment.
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According to a report in the Financial Times, the company's video numbers have more than tripled in the past six months. Last May, Evan Spiegel, Snapchat's CEO, told Bloomberg that the app's users were viewing more than two billion videos a day.
Snapchat's most recent numbers intensify the video competition between it and social media giant Facebook.
A spokesperson for Facebook told CBC News that it averages eight billion video views on a daily basis, watched by more than 500 million people. These most recent results were announced in the company's third quarter earnings highlights, released last week.
Facebook's numbers have doubled since April, when they claimed there were four billion video views on the platform per day.
There are sizeable differences between the two companies. Facebook says they average around one billion users on a daily basis, while Snapchat has a smaller audience of about 100 million users a day.
And while Facebook users can view its video on both their desktops and mobile phones, Snapchat only operates on mobile.
From chat to social
Snapchat is capitalizing on the immense demand for video on social media platforms, shifting from its messaging origins to a full-out social media platform.
The company recently introduced new features to the app including video effects that runs video fast, in slow motion and in reverse, as well as real-time video lenses that lets users shoot hearts out of their eyeballs or vomit rainbows.
Snapchat also recently introduced Live Stories, allowing its users to contribute photos and video to a common media presentation surrounding an event or physical place.
In 2013, Snapchat reportedly rejected an all-cash acquisition offer from Facebook, that would have valued the company at $3 billion or more.