Online video is growing ever more popular, particularly in the United States. But it’s YouTube which continues to drive market penetration, with Hulu leading the rest of the growing pack.
Online Video Viewer Stats
Online video is showing no signs of slowing down in growth. As the latest comScore statistics for December 2009 show.
178 million Internet users in the U.S. watched online video during the last month of the decade. Which equates to almost 87 percent market penetration.
Between them they watched over 33 billion videos in December, or the equivalent of 187 videos each. The average length of video now stands at 4.1 minutes, up from 3.5 minutes around the same time last year.
YouTube Leading
As always, YouTube is leading the pack by quite a margin. 13 billion (40 percent) of the 33 billion video total were watched on the Google-owned site. The 136 million people who used YouTube averaged 97 videos per user.
With viewer numbers and loyalty like that it’s really no wonder Google is trying to shape YouTube into a site which can turn a profit, be it from movie rentals, a TV subscription service, or better advertising options.
Hulu Growing
ranks second again, as it has done for a while now. However, it’s a long way behind YouTube, with a 3 percent market share. Not that Hulu is complaining though, as it has broken the one billion videos barrier for the first time in its history.
Hulu is almost certainly to launch paid options this year, but it’s viewer numbers such as this which will ensure a free option always remains. Hulu would be mad to put all its content behind a paywall and lose that momentum at a stroke.
Conclusions
I cannot see anyone ever catching YouTube. The site continues to go from strength to strength, picking up new viewers, serving more videos than ever, and innovating to stay ahead of the chasing pack.
Online video as a whole is continuing its long march upwards. And that’s unlikely to stall anytime soon. The emerging tablet computer sector, as led by the Apple iPad, is promising to change the way we access media content, and that can only be good for Web video.
