What Facebook's Acquisition of Video Startup Quickfire Means For Marketers

The social networking mogul Facebook took over the video startup QuickFire. The acquisition was officially announced on the QuickFire website last Thursday. In case you missed it, here are the details and what we know so far.

What is QuickFire?

In the words Craig Y. Lee, QuickFire CEO, 'QuickFire Networks was founded on the premise that the current network infrastructure is not sufficient to support the massive consumption of video that's happening online without compromising on video quality. QuickFire Networks solves this capacity problem via proprietary technology that dramatically reduces the bandwidth needed to view video online without degrading video quality.'

The founder of the San Diego based company has said to be 'thrilled to help deliver high quality video experiences to all the people who consume video on Facebook'.

Why is Facebook Interested?

Coincidentally, the announcement of the takeover comes days after it's been made known that Facebook averaged more than 1 billion video views every day. Video is now an essential part of the Facebook experience. Not sure about this? Think about the #IceBucketChallenge. This viral campaign alone saw 2.4 million ice-bucket related videos on Facebook. There is a lot of power behind such explosive campaigns that take over the internet community, and the Zuckerberg team are ready to make the most of it.

So why is Facebook interested in QuickFire? For one, videos present a great opportunity for Facebook to increase their revenue as well as make profits from advertising. A recent tweak in the Facebook algorithm means that the more videos you watch, the more of them will appear on your News Feed.Facebook is really trying (and managing) to convince users to upload videos directly to the networking site instead of uploading them on to YouTube first, and then sharing the link on Facebook. By bypassing the middle man (YouTube) and Facebook ensures that they have control over what you watch and of course, what ads you see.

Secondly, video is obviously a great new gap in the social media arena and Facebook are making sure they have the competitive edge, for as long as they can. With YouTube rumoured to be courting top creative talent and Twitter developing a video product of their own, it is clear that Facebook has taken a step forward to addressing this new trend by ensuring they have the technology they need.

What Does That Mean For Us?

There are 2 major implications for the user side of this acquisition. For one, we expect to be seeing a lot more videos on our News Feeds, from both friends and brands.

From a business and advertiser point of view, we can see this acquisition majorly changing the way we see and use Facebook for outreach. In terms of advertising, it will now be much more complex, much more engaging and targeted, and presumably, much more expensive.

We are looking forward to see what Facebook, QuickFire and the future have in store for us!

This guest article was written by InTouch CRM Content and Digital Marketing Executive Didi Zheleva.