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Zuckerberg: Most of Facebook Will Be Video Within Five Years

jfruh writes: Facebook recently held its first ever town-hall meeting in which Mark Zuckerberg took questions from the general public, and one of his answers might raise some eyebrows. When asked if the increasing numbers of photos being uploaded might strain the company's servers, he said the infrastructure is more than up to the task, because they're preparing for the notion that "in five years, most of [Facebook] will be video."

15 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. No. by kuzb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I find it increasingly more and more difficult to take Zuckerberg seriously.

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    BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
    1. Re:No. by itzly · · Score: 4, Insightful

      All it takes for facebook to fail is for ordinary users walking away in sufficient numbers.

    2. Re:No. by i+kan+reed · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Uh, yeah. So?

    3. Re:No. by itzly · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The fact that Zuckerberg is CEO of a Fortune-500 company isn't a guarantee that he's any better at predicting the future.

    4. Re:No. by i+kan+reed · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Yeah, but I was talking about people taking him seriously. Not whether he was right.

    5. Re:No. by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Worth mentioning, there's a difference between asserting it will all be video, and preparing your infrastructure for that possibility.

      That said, Zuckerberg (and every other website operator) hopes it will all be video, because video ads tend to make more than static. That's why every website from MSNBC to Slashdot have suddenly tried creating video content, even when it makes no sense.

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      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    6. Re:No. by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Worth mentioning, there's a difference between asserting it will all be video, and preparing your infrastructure for that possibility.

      I tracked down the webcast and the question is asked ~34 minutes in.
      Here's what he actually said, beyond the snippet being quoted everywhere

      5 years ago, most of facebook was text and if you fast forward 5 years, probably most of it is going to be video, just because it's getting easier to capture video of the moments of your lives and share it [...]

      He then talks about the news feed ranking your stories.

      Every day there are about 1,500 stories that are shared with you and the average person will only look at about 100 a day, because that's all you have time for

      In 5 years, if everything on facebook is video, the average person is sure as hell not going to have time to interact with 100 videos per day.
      Unless they copy Vine, a richer video experience on facebook will necessarily mean that you interact with less people per unit of time.

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      o0t!
    7. Re:No. by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That said, Zuckerberg (and every other website operator) hopes it will all be video, because video ads tend to make more than static. That's why every website from MSNBC to Slashdot have suddenly tried creating video content, even when it makes no sense.

      Plus, video ads are less blockable because users run the real risk of blocking the content they wish to see as well. That's why they pay more. And you can make them unskippable and all that too.

      Why do you think all the TV networks have embraced putting TV shows online? Because they realize they can put ads on the stream and the user has to sit through them (or go to the bathroom). Either way, they can't fast forward through them like they can on a DVR.

    8. Re:No. by SolitaryMan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Who the fuck has the time to look through 100 FB stories a day???

      --
      May Peace Prevail On Earth
  2. So long as it does not autoplay. by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Autoplay HTML5 video is the scourge on the Internet. Is there a way to stop it?

  3. Re:Most of Facebook is moms reposting the same jok by nine-times · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That hasn't been my experience. These days, my Facebook feed seems to be filled with people posting Buzzfeed links to "20 sexy historical facts that will blow your mind!" or else it's a link that says "You won't believe what happens in this video!" without giving any explanation as to what's in the video.

    In other words, it's mostly tedious, useless advertising for something or other.

  4. In five years by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Facebook will be completely irrelevant to the vast majority of people - pretty much where MySpace has been for the past half-decade.

    Seriously - Facebook's user base is rapidly skewing older and older. When I mention Facebook to a young person, they generally either say they aren't on it at all anymore, or they say they only get on Facebook to stay in touch with their older relatives (mom, dad, grandma, etc.).

    And, at least right now, there doesn't appear to be one dominant site where everyone under thirty has landed. Some hang out on Tumblr, some on Instagram, some only do SnapChat (I realize that's not a "site"), etc.

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  5. Videophones by Dan+East · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Yeah, just like how everyone now communicates via "video phone" (aka Facetime (TM), etc, etc) instead of just talking on the phone. Oh wait, we don't even use the phone any more, we use mostly written text. How many prognosticators of future technology utterly failed on that one too? Video is not the logical culmination of still images. It is something totally different. Nor was the music video the logical culmination of merely listening to music. He's looking too closely at things like technology and infrastructure and ignoring the higher level constructs and why people prefer one over the other.

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    Better known as 318230.
  6. In 5 years, most facebook will be... by roc97007 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...unseen by me. I don't want to sit through video. I *can* read, although it seems like most Facebook denizens can't write.

    When I poke a link to a news item, if it leads to a video, rather than waiting for the commercial to load and play, and the talking heads to stop self promoting and get to the point, I've long since dismissed the tab and found the news item somewhere else as text.

    The more Facebook forces video, the less interesting it is.

    And of course, Google will copy everything Facebook does, so G+ will be screwed also.

    I'm going back to Usenet. run-on puns were better than this. (It was just a capital-K to get rid of them.)

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    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  7. Ain't nobody got time for that by unfortunateson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously? 90% of Facebook is currently graphics certainly not worth 1000 words: they literally are about eight to thirty words, total, with some public domain clipart or unlicensed pop-culture icons. I don't do "meme pictures." If I have a message, I type it.

    I've never understood the point of podcasts other than for music or other performance: If I want news, I can read it in 1/10th the time.
    And video? What, am I deaf and need to see your body language and lips move? Sure, for educational, entertainment clips, and of course cute animals... but otherwise? Nope.

    And get off my lawn.

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