While Facebook Video may not be the first source that people think of when it comes to uploading and sharing clips with the community (that’s usually YouTube), there’s no question that it’s becoming a contender for the market.

TechCrunch has reported that Facebook’s Q4 earnings report indicates that there are three billion videos viewed on the social site on a daily basis, with daily active users rounding to 890 million viewers. That basically equates to each person watching three videos per day.

Facebook also indicated that out of all of those who visit the site, an estimated 50 percent watch at least one video a day – not too shabby considering its daily numbers. Out of all the devices in which people watched these videos, 65 percent of them were accounted for on mobile.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was quick to point out how much usage has changed for the site over the last decade, evolving from just text to “primarily photos with some text and video,” even though the social aspect remains completely intact. In addition two billion photos are shared on a daily basis across the site, which is one billion less than videos, but still a staggering number when it comes to user uploads and sharing.

“One of the big trends will be the growth of video content to our service,” said Zuckerberg, which is likely to continue expanding over the next few years with more features. The rise of video not only presents a new kind of community to the site, but also advertising possibilities with many companies that want to get the word out in different ways, aside from just static ads.

“It’s exciting that we’ve gotten to three billion video views per day because it shows that consumers like video,” said COO Sheryl Sandberg about the statistic. “That gives us an opportunity to grow our video advertising. What really matters is that consumers are using videos on Facebook,” she added. Without that aspect, “video ads would be very jarring.”

But the company won’t go overboard on the idea of premium video content. “I don’t think it matters what that content is,” Sandberg added. “We have an NFL test right now but we are already seeing explosive growth without it. We haven’t figured out what the mix needs to be.”

YouTube hasn’t responded to the stats, but it has enough healthy business that shouldn’t affect its grip on the video market – not yet, anyway.

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