Sure they have. If you see an ad, sponsored or promoted post someone has paid Facebook to put that item in front of your eyes. Just like any other form of advertising.
I posted the earlier question and although nobody seems to have a factual answer I do have a theory. If you post a photo, anybody who sees it can copy the photo–you can save it to a file. Then you can share it freely by reposting it without attribution to where you got it from. You cannot do that with a video. Facebook doesn’t include a video download capability and I am unaware of any third-party tools that do it (probably violates TOS). So if I post a 5-second video instead of a JPG meme, I get notoriety whenever it is shared by anyone. Now what that’s worth, I don’t know, but it might be a way to drive traffic to certain Facebook commercial pages.
Another thing that’s happened twice to me while on Facebook is the same thing that happens on places like CNN where you scroll past the video and it pops up on the side of the page anyway!!
I swear I lose my shit when that happens. The only way I figured out how to make it stop is to scroll back up to the offending video and click “hide this post”.
Buncha jerks!
Anyone who knows what they’re doing can copy anything any time. I can copy your “single image” video image just by hitting the “print screen” key. I also have a video screen recorder that can capture any video playing on my screen, so “protecting the image” simply isn’t possible at all and it would be nonsense to try game the system for a commercial page.
As someone who actually advertises on Facebook, I can tell you that they recommend video ads over all others and will give them better placement.
Facebook only cares about one thing - that you have a good time there. They use math and statistics and your clicks and ALL the data they collect to determine your level of satisfaction.
The math has show that videos get the most user interactions and therefor videos are being featured more in Newsfeeds, both as advertising and as “normal” posts.
It’s child’s play to prove it. Post a text message, a message featuring a picture and a message featuring a video and see which one gets the most exposure. I’ve done this test many times with my personal account and my commercial account and the simple fact is that videos get more exposure from Facebook, because the average Facebook user “likes” them more than any other type of message… literally “likes” them more.
It’s that simple.
I get how advertising works, I just don’t think it works on me. I realize how arrogant that sounds.
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Well, you could say that Facebook advertisers have not made a penny off you. That is probably true. Facebook itself has made money from you though.
How so?
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By charging people to put ads in front of you.
I just want to point out that what I wrote is not a theory: dealing with social media is part of my job.
One of the worst parts of my job, but still something that I get paid to analyze.
Well, “gravity” is still a “theory” and so is evolution so no offense to you 
It was a sound explanation!
Wouldn’t your simply going on the site and clicking things contribute to the mountain of data they analyse and use to figure out how to better advertise and make money? You might never spend a cent directly but if you “tell” them that you prefer clicking videos 10 times more than still pictures they use that information to make money from those who do buy stuff. You can help a company make money in a lot of ways other than opening your wallet and handing over cash.