Facebook cooperates to improve the quality of streaming video

The social networking giant is partnering with Microsoft, Google, Netflix and Amazon to stream online video faster.

4 out of 5 biggest technology companies have joined hands to make the experience of watching videos on the internet cheaper, easier and smoother.

Facebook has just joined Alliance for Open Media, a group of businesses working together to build new video compression technology called AOMedia Video 1 (AV1), without having to pay. license of invention.

The effort to create this unified new generation video compression standard is supported by Google, Mozilla and Cisco and many units specializing in online video like Netflix or Amazon. Microsoft is also in this group.

Video compression may sound confusing and unclear but very important to online life. Good compression allows streaming videos, downloading videos more easily even if the network is not fast, not to mention 4K movie downloads or augmented reality headsets.

H.264 compression standard or AVC has dominated the market for many years. HEVC or H.265 successors may follow. Apple loves HEVC, saying it reduces its file size by 40%. They also offer new HEIF image format, reducing image size by up to 50%. However, the patent issue has hampered the use of HEVC due to increased costs.

See also: HEIF - New image format will take the throne?

YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime don't need to worry, but Facebook's support for AV1 is very important. There are more than 2 billion Facebook users, meaning microprocessor manufacturers, OS, web browsers and other platform technologies will be more motivated to support.

Video is a form of content that is consumed heavily on Facebook

Facebook is also a big market for watching videos online. In 2016, we watch an average of 100 million hours of video every day on Facebook and the number continues to increase.

'In the next 3 years, the biggest trend in our product is video,' said CEO Mark Zuckerberg. 'Including sharing videos, when Instagram and Status Stories on WhatsApp grow very fast, each side has more than 300 million daily activities, and also consumes video content'. 'We've just launched a Watch tab, where you discover, follow, connect to watch videos and build communities with like-minded people.'