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Online Video: 11 Billion Views and No Signs of Slowing
By Cliff Karklin | June 30, 2008
On June 17th, comScore (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, released its data from the Video Metrix service, which measures monthly video views online. The numbers were massive. According to the service, U.S. Internet users viewed 11 billion online videos throughout April, with more than 4 billion of those videos, almost 38%, being viewed on YouTube. MySpace (part of Fox Interactive Media) and Yahoo! Video sites trailed far behind with 5.1% and 3.2% respectively.
| Top U.S. Online Video Properties* by Videos Viewed
April 2008 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore Video Metrix |
||
| Property |
Videos (000) |
Share (%) of Videos |
| Total Internet |
10,999,597 |
100.0 |
| Google Sites |
4,159,850 |
37.9 |
| Fox Interactive Media |
557,663 |
5.1 |
| Yahoo! Sites |
352,359 |
3.2 |
| Microsoft Sites |
268,033 |
2.4 |
| Viacom Digital |
199,968 |
1.8 |
| Time Warner - Excl. AOL |
138,771 |
1.3 |
| ABC.COM |
103,421 |
0.9 |
| Disney Online |
98,740 |
0.9 |
| AOL LLC |
95,288 |
0.9 |
| ESPN |
83,424 |
0.8 |
*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.
These numbers should come as no surprise, as YouTube has long dominated the online video market, but these metrics convey other facts that are far more interesting. In addition to the amount of videos viewed, the data showed that 71% of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online videos, and that the average viewer watched approximately 228 minutes of video throughout the month. This information more than confirms the potency of online video in today’s Internet, but what does it mean for you?
If there was ever any doubt that online video is here to stay, these numbers should blow that doubt out of the water. The sheer volume of users taking time to watch online video makes that clear. More interesting about this data, however, is that it was only pulled from video content sites similar to YouTube and MySpace. This means that only the major players were used for the data, leaving out thousands of sites hosting their own video channels, such as Fathom SEO TV’s Channel Guide. Furthermore, there are countless business sites featuring video that also went uncounted. The lack of inclusion of these sites strongly underlines the fact that the numbers shown in this data are actually short of the true results, despite their already impressive size.
If you take nothing else from these numbers, you should leave with this: Online video is a helpful, powerful, and most importantly, visible way to enhance the content on your site. With the numbers growing every month, everybody is going to be looking for their slice of that viewership to promote their product or service, and you definitely don’t want to be left behind.
*All data courtesy of comScore via http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2268
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