Facebook desktop viewers are the second biggest online video advertising market in the US, according to ComScore data from October 2014.

A recent study by eMarketer predicts a rapid increase in online video advertising on Facebook and other social platforms in 2015. In the past two years, mobile video consumption has grown by 532% cross-platform. eMarketer estimates YouTube captures nearly 20% of US video advertising spending right now and Facebook has the potential to move in on this figure.

In Australia, there are currently 13 million active users of online video. On average, at least half of daily Facebook users watch at least one video every day.

In just a year, the number of video posts per person has increased by 94% in the US and 75% globally.

Facebook’s strong mobile presence, sharing abilities and its native video player are redefining video advertising by creating several benefits for marketers. Maikel O’Hanlon, vice president of social media strategy at Horizon Media, thinks Facebook may be the most powerful video distribution medium at the moment. But eMarketer believes there are risks: Facebook’s search capabilities are limited, the feed is brief and it isn’t a destination for video so much as it is a sharing tool.

Facebook isn’t the only one “angling for a slice of the video advertising pie”. Twitter is beta testing promoted videos, Instagram is set to roll out video advertising, and Tumblr and Snapchat have new video ad products.

“It’s not just YouTube anymore”, says Kellee Montgomery, social and emerging digital marketing manager for Ford Channels.

“Your content has to have a lot of legs that can span multiple channels.”

Social properties are becoming major video platforms. A report by Cisco, in June 2014, predicts mobile video overall to increase 14-fold by 2018. It also projects that video will account for 80% to 90% of global consumer internet traffic by 2018.

Marketers who have experimented with video ads on Facebook say they can get a great deal of organic distribution on top of paid distribution. The viral potential is appealing, says O’Hanlon. “I see Facebook becoming an enormous player in the video distribution space, and that is the byproduct of the level of targeting, the size of the audience and the way Facebook has found to present the video experience.”

In June 2014, Frank N. Magid Associates survey, Internet: The Evolving Distribution of Content, revealed 75% of US digital video viewers used YouTube. Facebook trailed behind at 33%.

eMarketer believes while Facebook has grown as a video platform and could be used to help grow the overall video market, YouTube will continue to be the favoured video advertising destination for marketers.