Facebook is taking a huge swing at YouTube

Facebook is launching an embeddable video player, the company announced at its developers conference Wednesday afternoon.

Users will now be able to embed Facebook-hosted videos anywhere on the web, just like it's possible to do with YouTube or Vimeo videos. This embeddable video player will become available to use today.

This is a big challenge to YouTube, and follows Facebook's recent ramping up of its focus on video and lucrative video advertising.

Via BI reporter Lara O'Reilley:

Until recently, Facebook wasn't even considered a destination for video. Users and page owners would simply share YouTube links. Now, more and more video content is being uploaded to Facebook direct.

So much so that Facebook videos are even driving YouTube videos off Facebook.

• December marked the first time ever Facebook Page owners uploaded more videos directly to Facebook than they shared YouTube videos, according to data from Socialbakers.
• In February, Facebook accounted for 25% of all Super Bowl ad video views online and YouTube with 74% (last year Facebook video accounted for less than 1%, and YouTube 94%).
• Videos are also the number one way to ensure organic content from pages reaches users in the competitive news feed, according to Socialbakers. Facebook is making sure every time you visit the site you see a video.

This move makes Facebook an even bigger competitor to YouTube.