Facebook just upped the ante on its big bet on digital video—and ratcheted up the competition with Google's YouTube.

The social networking behemoth has bought a video compression platform called Quickfire Networks, The Wall Street Journal reported. The San Diego start-up supposedly allows users to upload and download videos with less bandwidth and without diminishing video quality.

Quickfire Networks' service could potentially allow users to bypass YouTube when posting videos to Facebook, the Journal reported.

"Video is an essential part of the Facebook experience. We are excited to bring QuickFire Networks on board as we continue delivering a high-quality video experience to the over 1.3 billion people who use Facebook," Vanessa Chan, a spokesperson for the social networking site, wrote in an emailed statement on Thursday, according to multiple media outlets.

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Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

"Facebook has more than 1 billion video views on average every day and we're thrilled to help deliver high-quality video experiences to all the people who consume video on Facebook," wrote QuickFire Chief Executive Officer Craig Lee on the company's website.

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The QuickFire deal was the second acquisition Facebook made this week. On Monday, the social networking site bought Wit.ai, a Palo Alto, California-based voice recognition start-up.