With most of the big players in the Web TV and streaming video industry being based in North America, read Google, YouTube, MySpace, Yahoo!, it’s easy to forget this is a worldwide phenomenon.
We already know that the amount of Internet traffic heading to online video sites in the US is rising rapidly, and the business model is slowly but surely getting worked out.
Now we learn that traffic in the UK is also rising at a massive rate, with the latest statistics showing a rise of 178% in online traffic being targeted at video sites in Britain over the last year.
Hitwise Statistics
These stats come courtesy of Hitwise, an Internet monitor which takes its figures directly from ISPs, and they show the growth which has taken place between February 2007 and February 2008.
Unsurprisingly, YouTube comes out as the most popular video website in the UK, but the margin it beats out the competition by is surprisingly large.
YouTube Far Ahead
Between them, the US and UK YouTube portals account for 69.31% of the market share in the UK, beating the BBC iPlayer in to second place on 5.66%.
The BBC iPlayer has grown substantially (a whopping 423%) since its relaunch at Christmas, and that figure is actually quite impressive for such a new resource for Web video lovers.
Some smaller companies such as Vuze and Tudou managed to make the top ten of most visited video sites in the UK, although their 1% share won’t ever compete with the likes of YouTube.
Conclusions
As a Brit living in the UK, I am well aware that video sites are now getting much more attention and traffic than they were at the same time last year, thanks in part to the BBC and their promotion of the iPlayer.
It’ll be interesting to see whether this move by a public broadcaster and its blanket advertising of the service means other similar but smaller services also see an increase in visitors.
For now I think it’s safe to assume that the business of Web television is looking healthy. As more advertisers start to get interested in these large numbers, that should go from strength to strength.
