Key Stats

• Facebook Live video streams surpassed the 2 billion mark in 2019
• Facebook generates over 3,000 years of video watch time each day
• Facebook Live and Instagram Live are watched up to 3x longer than the usual non-live videos
• Facebook Live videos comment 10 times more than they do on videos that are not live

About Facebook Live:

Facebook live is an additional feature launched by Mark Zuckerberg, which was not present in the beginning. It has highly influenced the usage and publicity of Facebook in a positive sense.

• Facebook Live introduced in April 2016. (mediakix)
• Right after the launch, the live streaming on Facebook live has doubled year after year. (mediakix)
• People have been searching 330% more times for live feeds of Facebook since it began. (mediakix)
• Celebrities and publishers have made $50 million by using Facebook live feature alone. (mediakix)
• Facebook had to make payment of $2.2 million to influencers to use the facility of Facebook live. (mediakix)
• Daily, Facebook streams more than 8 billion videos. (mediakix)
• Facebook has been able to get attention equal to 3,000 years of watch time on a single day. (mediakix)
• With as many as 174.8 million views, the Chewbacca mom’s Facebook live feed is the most watched. (mediakix)
• In the trail group for Facebook live, there were 70% high school or college age group users. (mediakix)
• Facebook live has broadcasted as many as 50 criminal incidents. (mediakix)

Comparison with other formats:

Since Facebook live is a relatively new feature, comparison with others can show us how well it has been doing in the market. 

• Facebook has seen a rise of 300% in live videos, especially from the media companies between the period of January to May in the year 2016 immediately after its launch. (mediakix)
• The most famous social media stars got more than 20% attention by Facebook live views and likes. (mediakix)
• Facebook live videos get 3 times more viewership than the pre-loaded ones. (mediakix)
• Brands get 6 times more interaction through Facebook live broadcasting rather than the old traditional videos. (mediakix)
• On the eve on new years in the year, 2016, Facebook had the most live streaming. (mediakix)
• Since 2016 Facebook live watching has become 4 times the original number. (mediakix)

Usage by individuals:

The users of Facebook have taken live features as a welcoming new addition. There has been extensive usage by individuals too. The live feature has become the new favorite among the users.

• In the year 2019, Facebook live had amounted to 35% of the entire platform usage. (Woosuite)
• 1 out of every 5 videos on Facebook was a live stream in the year 2017. (99firms)
• In the year 2018, the live feeds on Facebook were 3.5 billion. (99firms)
• Facebook live videos receive as many as 10 times more comments than normal uploaded videos. (99firms)
• The watching time of Facebook live videos is 3 times more than the other videos. (99firms)
• 52% of the live streaming done by any platform is through the means of social media. (99firms)

Live broadcasting effects:

Facebook live broadcasting has multiple uses other than marketing. Many users like it because of the engagement, and they like the personal vibe it offers while watching.

• 25% of users tend to watch live videos to stay updated and informed. (99firms)
• 20% of the people view live videos to get the first person feel of an event without actually being at the venue. (99firms)
• 17% of users believe that live videos can give an authentic feel. (99firms)
• Most of the business use social media to get in touch with the customers. As many as 93.7% use Facebook, while 81.2% use the Facebook live feature. (99firms)
• In the year 2018, 91% of businesses used Facebook live features as a marketing strategy. (99firms)

Response to the video:

Live videos have become a very effective way to interact with the audience. They feel as if they are present with the stars themselves and, as a result, engage in comments. Also, an added feature is that many celebrities like to answer the queries on live feed, which increases the authenticity and engagements of the audience.

• Video broadcasting accounts for 11% of the total Facebook posts. (Sproutsocial)
• 8 billion views happen per day on Facebook live. (Sproutsocial)
• Mobile friendly Facebook live generates better audience engagements. (Sproutsocial)
• 85% of viewers prefer to watch live streaming without sound. (Sproutsocial)
• Square type videos get 35% more viewership than landscape type videos. ((Sproutsocial)
• Between the years 2016 to 2018, there were 150 billion reactions for Facebook live. (99firms)
• Facebook live had 2 billion viewers between the years 2016 to 2018. (99firms)
• Since 2016 the time spent to watch these live videos became four times each following year. (99firms)
• 80% of Facebook users like to view live feeds of brands than reading blogs. (99firms)
• 82% like to see live videos rather than seeing social posts. (99firms)
• The videos that are around 15 to 20 minutes are the most engaging ones. (99firms)
• The interaction level of live videos is six times more as compared to the traditional pre-loaded videos. (99firms)
• Facebook live videos get more than ten times more response in terms of comments as compared to the prerecorded videos. (99firms)
• Users spend three times the time to view live videos as compared to the uploaded ones.

Facebook Live video share status:

Facebook live gives options for you to select the video how you want to share before it streams live.  The options are:

• Public: Anybody, whether on or off Facebook, can see the live streaming. (heavy)
• Friends: Selecting this option can allow sharing the contents with your friends only. (heavy)
• Lists: Once opted for this feature, the video live will be shared with the people in the list created on the web browser of Facebook. (heavy)
• Only me: The option allows you to watch the video for you only. (heavy)

Popularity among businesses:

Though not all the businesses believe in using this feature, customers using the feature are very much satisfied with the response they get. It has fared better than any other marketing tool. 

• In the year 2019, 35% of the marketers using videos have used Facebook live. (99firms)
• During 2018, 91% of the businesses using video for promotion have used Facebook live. (99firms)
• 25% of the businesses have been using live feature once in every month. (99firms)
• 12% of the businesses have to share a live video once a week. (99firms)
• 5% of the companies like to use it several times a week. (99firms)
• 24% of the businesses believe that the live videos are very effective for their business. (99firms)

Different types of users:

The Facebook live feature is using by different types of people and brands. Streaming live actions behind the scene activities of shows and celebrities are very common now a day to stay connected with the audience.

• 76% broadcasters like to use Facebook live to cover an event. (99firms)
• 10% of those people that make how to videos use the live feature of Facebook. (99firms)
• 23% of those who are doing a conference with question answers involved use it to cover the event. (99firms)
• 20% of the people also use Facebook to showcase live and broadcast breaking news to the audience. (99firms)

Educational background of Facebook users:

• About 74% of Facebook users graduates.(share.lov)
• 75% of users have some college education. (share.lov)
• Users with high school or less education fall under 61%. (share.lov)

Demographic distribution:

The usage of Facebook varies with age and gender. Here is some data to clarify the difference in opinion.

• Gender wise comparison shows that 83% of women and 75% of men use Facebook. (wordstream)
• In the USA, 54% of Facebook users are women, and 46% are men. (sharelov)
• Age wise comparison shows that people in the age group 18-29 and 30-49 use Facebook 88% and 84% respectively. (wordstream)
• People in the age group 50-64 and 65 and above use Facebook 72% and 62%, respectively. (wordstream)
• 85% of the users of Facebook are from outside the US and Canada. (wordstream)
• The US has most users with 13%, followed by India with 10%, brazil 7%, Indonesia 5%, and Mexico 4%. Remaining are from the rest of the world. (wordstream)

Preferences and liking of Facebook live users:

It is always interesting to check the nature and preference of Facebook live customers.  As we know, Facebook live helps the broadcaster to have a better reach to the audience; broadcasters prefer to use live video streaming due to various reasons.  The following information will give you a better understanding of the subject. 

• 70% of marketers use it to reach out to new customers. (99firms)
• 58% believe that live videos increase their exposure and brand awareness. (99firms)
• As many as 2.38 billion users are using the viewership of Facebook. (99firms)
• 90% of the audience uses a feature only if they get great video quality only. (99firms)
• For maintaining the quality of the video, it should have a maximum resolution of 720p at 30 frames in each second. (99firms)
• Soon after the launch, Facebook live became the most watched video and came to the top position defeating YouTube. In the beginning of 2016, you tube had a 21% audience, which fell to 16% only by the end of the year. (99firms)
• 92% of the Facebook users prefer their native format off Facebook videos only. (99firms)
• Around 42% of Facebook live videos receive engagement. On average, there have been 101,362 engagements. This numbers are 125 more than the Facebook posts. (99firms)
• Facebook live gets around 28,239 comments on average, while pre-recorded videos get an average of 10,652 only. It shows that live videos get 165% more response than recorded video content. Image posts manage to get only 5,119 comments on an average. (99firms)

Viewership or sharing statistics of Facebook live:

Similar to Facebook posts, Facebook live also gets more views and sharing. Let us check the facts about Facebook live and Facebook facts.  

• Each Facebook video sharing takes place average of 11,314 times, and non-video contents get shared on an average 54,000 times. (Wordstream)
• The Chewbacca Mom video was the most watched video on Facebook love, which had had 175 million views. (Wordstream)
• Facebook had 2.50 monthly active viewers as on December 2019. (zephoria)
• 79% of Americans use Facebook, while 32% use Instagram. (Wordstream)
• Around half of the US residents check Facebook several times a day. (Wordstream)
• 50 million enterprises use Facebook live. (Wordstream)
• 22% of the world’s population is connected with Facebook. (Wordstream)
• Every minute there are around 400 new sign ups on Facebook. (Wordstream)
• On every single day, as many as 35 million people update their status on Facebook. (Wordstream)

Meaningful communities:

Facebook live is not only for business and publicity campaigns but is also using as an effective communication media to stay connected with friends, relatives, and community members. The live stream is extremely beneficial in passing real-time information and also can use to seek help from all over the world in case of an emergency.

• For the novel COVID-19 relief works, Facebook is aiming to generate $20 million. (Adweek)
• In 2019, using Facebook, 1.1 million people could raise $120 million on #GivingTuesday for noble causes, where the donations reached to 97,000 relief entities such as cancer research, animal shelters, disaster relief, etc. (Forbes)
• More than 100 million users have been using one or more meaningful communities. (Worstream)
• More than 50% of users have joined useful communities in the past six months. (Worstream)
• Around 8.5 million people used Facebook to tell the world that they were safe during the earthquake in Nepal in 2015 April. (Worstream)
• During the 2015 Nepal earth quake, communities could generate $17 million for relief works with participation of 770,000 people. Facebook also donated $2 million for the relief works. (Worstream)
• There are 80 million users of the Facebook lite version meant for the slow connection, such as in the developing countries. (Worstream)

Some interesting facts about Facebook live:

Even though Facebook live is a relatively new layer in this field, started in April 2016; it has become one of the most sought-after social media live streaming tool.  The feature allows the user to stream live video to the audience, which is an effective tool to get connected with the audience.  On the revenue generation segment, it offers stiff competition to its peers. During the initial period, Facebook live paid to celebrities and corporate giants like Buzzfeed, CNN, etc., for promotion of the brand.  Let us check some of the revenue statistics of Facebook over the years.

• Facebook live opened to the public in April 2016. (99firms)
• During the initial stage, it was available to public figures and celebrities before it went public. (99firms)
• Facebook live started uploading millions of videos every day in 2016. (99firms)
• By 2017, about 20% of videos uploaded were live. (99firms)
• Facebook live added another feature in May 2017, a feature that allows broadcasters to invite friends, customers to watch the live stream. (99firms)
• By 2018, Facebook live crossed 3.5 billion live streaming. (99firms)
• The live video of Facebook has registered 6 times more engagements than non-live videos. (99firms)
• Facebook live got 10 times more responses from the targeted audience than non-live videos. (99firms)
• The popularity of Facebook live streaming increased by 330% in a year. (99firms)
• 8% of the revenue of ad revenue for Facebook comes from the US and Canada. (99firms)
• 94% of the ad revenue comes from mobile usage of Facebook. (99firms)
• In terms of annual digital display earnings, Facebook makes 40%, while google gets 12%. (99firms)
• The revenue of Facebook live expected to cross $9.6 billion by 2021. (99firms)

Benefits of using Facebook live:

One of the major benefits of using Facebook live is the engagement it can offer to the brand. Irrespective of the nature of the content, whether it is video or text, it has got value to add engagement. Since the live stream can attract more audiences, many corporates depend on Facebook live to increase brand engagement. Those using this feature of live videos do so for getting publicity. So, we must study the effectiveness of this feature among the audience.

• With the Simulcast function, a broadcaster can stream multiple Facebook pages at a time. (socialmediatoday)
• It has features ‘Live lives on’ to save the live session and use it for a repeat broadcast. (socialmediatoday)
• The feature, live analytics will let you understand the number of viewers, reach, comments, reactions, and shares. (business2community)
• Helps to develop a better relationship with the audience. (business2community)
• High reachability. More than 500 million users watch Facebook live daily. (business2community)
• Live video cam makes longer engagement with the audience, as the viewer continues to watch the live streaming 3x longer than video content. 80% of people recall video content than a publicity caption. (business2community)
• Live broadcasting can help to increase the traffic on your Facebook page. (Sproutsocial)

Conclusion:

As from the above data, it is clear that the new Facebook Live feature has been liked and welcomed by the users. It gives, and authenticity to the video as users get first person experience. They feel that they are present at the venue and attending the event. Also, the live broadcasting helps to increase the interaction rate. All these contribute to the increase in usage of Facebook on the whole. And the success of this platform has attracted many brands to use it, which enhances the revenue of Facebook as a whole. 

Source links:

https://mediakix.com/blog/Facebook-live-statistics-video-streaming-to-know/

https://woosuite.com/stats/facebook/

https://99firms.com/blog/Facebook-live-stats/#gref

https://heavy.com/tech/2016/10/can-facebook-live-see-me-watching-be-private-viewers-who-is-watching-facebook-videos-stats-privacy-settings-periscope-alively/

https://blog.sharelov.com/ultimate-list-of-facebook-statistics/

https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/

https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/11/07/Facebook-statistics

https://www.adweek.com/digital/facebook-to-match-up-to-20m-in-donations-for-coronavirus-relief-efforts/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisstrub/2019/12/31/gt2019/#16339e2b1e3c

https://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-live-for-business/

https://www.business2community.com/facebook/5-benefits-using-facebook-live-video-01773422

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-business/8-reasons-why-brands-should-be-using-facebook-live