bgr : Facebook apologizes for video viewing-time error

Facebook apologizes for video viewing-time error

Facebook apologized on Friday for what it described as a "miscalculation" in the way it reported how long, on average, videos on the site were viewed— an error that caused the metric to be exaggerated.The error stemmed from how the company did the math on video viewing length, taking into account only people who watched a video for three seconds or more, the social media giant said.If the company had taken into account views that were less than three seconds, the average duration of video viewed would be shorter.

Facebook can't run away the realities of video advertising anymore

Count down three seconds in your head.It goes fast, right?I bet you did it the "one-hippopotamus way."

Facebook miscalculated video numbers for two years

In this advertisement from the Tex Mex restaurant Chuy's, the average view for the video was 100 percent.That means everyone who saw the ad supposedly watched it from start to end."I don't think it's mathematically possible," said Kristen Sussman, founder and president of social media agency, Social Distillery.

Facebook gave advertisers an inflated video metric

Facebook overestimated the average time users spent watching videos for two years, a mistake that could make some advertisers think twice about how much money they're pouring into video ads on the world's largest social network.The Menlo Park tech firm, which on Friday publicly apologized for the error, said it should have calculated this metric by taking the total time spent watching a video and dividing it by the total number of viewers.Instead, the company was taking the total time spent watching a video and dividing it by the number of people who have viewed a video for three or more seconds, which pushes up the average.

Facebook says it gave advertisers inflated video metrics

By Sarah Frier & Adam Satariano Facebook Inc.'s rapid growth has been tightly linked to convincing advertisers that people are watching more videos on its social network.Now the company is disclosing it has been giving marketers an inflated number for the average time being spent viewing online clips.The company, owner of the world's largest social network, boosted the figure by only counting a video as "viewed" if it had been seen for more than 3 seconds.Not included in the calculation was when a person didn't watch -- or watched for less than 3 seconds.