Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is increasingly becoming more lively, and the social network giant will probably become an “all video” platform over the next five years, according Nicola Mendelsohn, the vice president for the company in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Mendelsohn made the prediction during the Most Powerful Women International Summit hosted by Fortune in London on Tuesday.
During the event, Fortune’s assistant managing editor, Pattie Sellers asked Mendelson about Facebook’s position in terms of mobile and video over the next five years.
Mendelsohn responded, “It would be probably all video.” She explained that the company is already observing a year-over-year decline on text usage and a massive increase in pictures and video on its platform. She said, “If I was having a bet, I would say video, video.”
Facebook live videos have higher engagement than expected
Mendelsohn emphasized that the best way to tell stories is through videos given the massive information people are getting. According to her, videos help people “digest more information” quickly.
Furthermore, Mendelsohn noted that Facebook’s new live video feature became a “bigger and faster phenomenon” than expected by the social network giant. She said, “People are loving the behind-the-scenes content,” and the comments on live videos are ten times more than those on pre-recorded videos. She said, “Engagement is much higher.”
According to Mendelsohn, Facebook users are watching an average of 100 million hours of video on their mobile devices every day. In one year, daily views increase to 8 billion from 1 billion while text posts are declining annually.
Facebook releases suicide prevention resources for all users
Separately, Facebook updates its suicide prevention resources and decided to make it available to all users worldwide. The social network giant partnered with mental health organizations with input from people who have personal experience with self-injury and suicide in developing those resources.
“ Now, with the help of these new tools, if someone posts something on Facebook that makes you concerned about their well-being, you can reach out to them directly — and you also can also report the post to us. We have teams working around the world, 24/7, who review reports that come in. They prioritize the most serious reports like self-injury,” said Antigone Davis, global head of safety and Jennifer Guadagno, researcher at Facebook.
