Facebook has acquired QuickFire, a video-compression startup that “dramatically reduces the bandwidth needed to view video online without degrading quality”, making it easier to load videos, particularly on mobile devices.

QuickFire Networks was founded on the premise that the current network infrastructure is not sufficient to support the massive consumption of video that’s happening online without compromising on video quality, it said in a statement announcing the news.

For Facebook, which said it has averaged more than one billion video views every day since June 2014, video is becoming increasingly important. It wants users to put up videos directly to the site rather than use links to external websites like YouTube.

This will mean users will spend more time on the social networking site and also helps Facebook place videos around advertising.

Videos on Facebook now load automatically as users scroll through their news feed, making it essential for them to load quickly.

Earlier this week, Facebook agreed to acquire Wit.ai, a company specialising in natural language processing technology, which can be incorporated into apps by developers.