Video Statistics

This is a review of some of the latest statistics surrounding online video usage. As more figures are released I will try to come back and update this page to maintain its relevance.

July 2009

The most recent report from comScore about online video usage in the US in April 2009 presented some fascinating facts.

� US Internet users watched 16.8 billion videos in April 2009
� This was an increase of 16 percent on the previous month
� 40 percent of the total were videos watched on YouTube
� 152 million Internet users watched an average of 111 videos each in April 2009
� 78.6 percent of US Internet users watched online video
� The average online video viewer watched 385 minutes of video. This is almost six and a half hours of video per person
� In Canada it is even higher. In February 2009
� The average online video lasted three and a half minutes

These numbers may seem large but they place the US behind Canada, the UK, Germany and France in terms of average number of minutes watched online and overall penetration of online video. The figures for February 2009 from comScore show Canadians watching an average of 10 hours a month of video online.

It's no surprise that YouTube continues to dominate online video viewing, but taken as a whole the figures clearly demonstrate the mainstream acceptance of online video. In 2009, no one should be even slightly surprised by the appearance of video on a site. It may even be that there is a measure of expectation regarding the use of online video on B2C and B2B websites.

According to the recent survey of C-level executives carried out by Forbes Insights in association with Google, 33 percent of executives under the age of 50 said they view work-related videos daily on business-related websites. Over a quarter of all executives polled under the age of 50 said that online video was their preferred format for gathering information.

As these figures continue to grow, more and more people are becoming comfortable with online video being part of their working life. But even as this happens very few businesses are managing to measure and optimize the impact of the videos they are using. We anticipate that as video becomes a standard part of the marketer's budget it will have to become financially accountable and prove its revenue generating capabilities in the same was as every other line item.