Friday, January 9, 2015

Video Autoplay Drives 60% to 200% Facebook Data Consumption Growth

Autoplay video is having a huge impact on Internet access networks, and also likely is going to shape end user behavior in ways beyond new concerns about uncontrollable bandwidth usage.

Over the 12 months preceding September 2014, Facebook traffic increased by 60 percent on the mobile network, and by over 200 percent on the fixed network, driven mainly by the addition of autoplay video to the Facebook feed, according to Sandvine.

Autoplay on Instagram and many other sites probably is having similar effects, namely increasing data consumption in an involuntary way.  

Users probably are starting to shut off audio when working in quiet places, or all the time. People might start reducing or avoiding some sites that are aggressive about autoplay video. Demand for third party apps to disable such features are going to become more popular.

Here are some ways to disable autoplay in your browser.

No comments:

Yes, Follow the Data. Even if it Does Not Fit Your Agenda

When people argue we need to “follow the science” that should be true in all cases, not only in cases where the data fits one’s political pr...