Approximately three in four U.S. Internet users surveyed, by ComScore viewed online video in November, mostly from Google sites like YouTube…
“More content begets more viewers, which, in turn, beget more content. That is the virtuous cycle — the network effect — that has propelled Google-owned YouTube to the No. 1 spot in online video…”
Step aside, boob tube. Online videos are becoming the primary form of media entertainment for many people.
After earlier this month the Pew Internet & American Life Project concluded that the video sharing sites have doubled their traffic, a new report released by comScore offers some more details.
Web surfers spent about an hour more per month watching videos in November compared with January, according to the latest comScore Video Metrix.
comScore Video Metrix report for November 2007 concluded that more than 75 percent of U.S. Internet users watched a video online (including both streaming video and progressive downloads), averaging 3.25 hours of video per person during the month.
The research company said that Google Sites, which includes YouTube, managed to increase their video market share by more than two percentage points to 31.3% from October to November.
All told, Americans viewed nearly 9.5 billion online videos in November–with Google Sites once again ranking as the top U.S. video property with 3 billion videos viewed, 2.9 billion of which occurred at YouTube.com.
“Specifically, they watched an average of 3.25 hours, or 195 minutes, of online video during the month, representing a 29 percent gain from 2.52 hours, or 151 minutes, watched in January 2007.”
“The average online video runs about 2.8 minutes, giving the average viewer time to consume 69 of these productions.”
Those network effects are helping YouTube outperform the growth of the overall market for online video, which itself is growing at a rapid clip. In September, Google sites accounted for 28.3 percent of all videos watched online, according to comScore. By November, Google’s share had grown by another 3 percentage points, to 31.3 percent, comScore said in a report Thursday.
“Google’s investments in YouTube and its own video search software are paying page view dividends.”
Google sites captured the largest online video audience with 76.2 million unique viewers, followed by Fox Interactive Media with 46.3 million and Yahoo sites with 37.3 million.
After Google’s strong market-share position, there was a big drop-off to Fox Interactive Media, which captured second place in the survey with a 4.4% share of market. Other finishers, in order, were: Yahoo sites with 3.5% market share; Viacom Digital, 26%; Time Warner Network, 1.9%; Microsoft sites, 1.9%; Disney Online, 1%; ABC.com, 0.9%; and ESPN, 0.9%.
Interestingly, the top 10 video sites accounted for less than half of all videos viewed online. That means people are watching video here, there and everywhere on the Web. And they are doing so more every day.
Most of the viewers trekking to Google sites, of course, actually went straight to YouTube, a big tent destination that is home to everything from purloined TV shows to battle scenes shot in Iraq to customer service protests to political messages from candidates.
“In total,” ComScore said, “138 million Americans — approximately three in four U.S. Internet users — viewed online video in November. That is still less than the amount of time average Americans spend in front of their TVs each day. But the data are likely to be skewed by the smaller number of people who watch online video “for absurd amounts of time,” said Josh Bernoff, an analyst with Forrester Research.
“If you are CBS, the fact that people are watching a few hours of online video a month is of some concern,” Bernoff said. “But if there is some member of your audience who is there for one or two hours a day, you have lost them. They are never coming back.”
“Those that have been lost by TV are likely to be found on YouTube, where 74 million people watched 39 videos each on average in November, according to comScore.”
“There are no competing destinations to YouTube if you are measuring by volume,” said Mike Goodman, a Yankee Group analyst. He does not anticipate the site losing its appeal even as Google incorporates it into its various advertising initiatives.
Video viewing seems to be progressing, with leadership concentrated in YouTube and MySpace. The YouTube fan base also appears to be more devoted to the Web site: comScore found that 74.5 million people viewed 2.9 billion videos on YouTube.com — averaging 39 videos per viewer.
“This compares with 43.2 million people who viewed 389 million videos on MySpace — an average of nine videos per viewer.”
“A rising tide lifts all boats,” said Goodman, referring to Google’s effect on the online video environment. Unlike search and many of the applications it has developed in house, Google bought its way into this particular industry niche, but has since managed to leverage its investment well.
Thanks to its billion-dollar investment in YouTube, Google’s share of the online video market is edging past 30 percent and still climbing. In November, its share had increased by 2 percentage points from October, according to the comScore statistics.