As we talked about yesterday, Facebook seems to be making itself a video monolith overnight, including inking a deal with the NFL. In the other corner, Twitter is still arguing with itself over whether the platform should allow videos to start playing automatically when users mouse over them.
According to AdWeek, people familiar with the problem are saying that on the one hand, purists don’t want to get too far from Twitter’s text based roots. On the other hand, well, money.
It’s honestly a bit strange that Twitter hasn’t already adopted an auto-play video format. Facebook is basically laughing manically while taking over the world of Internet video, and auto-play videos are considered to be one of the reasons for their success so far. Additionally, Twitter’s Amplify ad program relies heavily on video, and per Business Insider, they also recently purchased SnappyTV.
Amplify has resulted in over 100 partnerships for the social media platform, which include ads that focused on the NFL and the Oscars. SnappyTV allows people to created, edit and share clips from live broadcasts in almost real-time, and unless social media platforms get achievements for buying other companies, I’m assuming Twitter intends to put SnappyTV to use.
They’re going to have to do it eventually
Another major reason I don’t understand why they aren’t already making videos auto-play is because they’re basically giving away video views. While video views command upwards of $1 other social media platforms, Twitter video views only cost about $.02. That’s less than peanuts, literally. Auto-play video won’t automatically up the prices of video views for Twitter, but it will be a step in the right direction. Heck, at two cents a view, it would be hard for them to find a wrong direction to step in.
