YouTube reigns supreme
According to comScore1 data released Monday, Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube (owned by Google), ranked as the top online video content property in May with 151.7 million unique viewers in May out of 180 million unique visitors to all web video content except for ad videos, representing an 84 percent stronghold on all web video views.
Google was followed by Yahoo! Sites with 57.8 million, VEVO with 48.3 million, Microsoft Sites with 44.4 million and Facebook.com with 44.3 million. Nearly 36.6 billion video content views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 17.6 billion, followed by Hulu with 888 million and Yahoo! Sites with 845 million.
Time spent viewing videos is staggering
The average viewer watched 21.9 hours of online video content, with Google Sites (7.7 hours) and Hulu (4.2 hours) earning the highest average engagement among the top ten properties.
It is staggering to think that the average viewer spends this much time online, and while it is across all age demographics, a recent study revealed that only 26 percent of Millennials watch over 20 hours of television per week, while half of all Non-Millenials do. Meanwhile, 42 percent of Millennials watch tv online, and only 18 percent of Non-Millennials do, representing a major disparity growing between generations. It is even predicted that in the near future, Millennials will not be buying televisions, rather stream on their devices.
Web video use is rising not just because of ease of use, but because the number of videos is increasing and making it more reasonable to stream online. The challenge going forward will be the bandwidth issues and internet providers get everyone used to having high speed and continue to increase rates, with some likening the behavior to a drug dealer getting someone hooked on free or cheap product, then pushing the expensive option as the cheap option dies. Will web video popularity continue with this in play? Absolutely, just ask Millennials – they don’t even need a television, so adios, cable.
