Audience for Online Video-Sharing Sites Has Nearly Doubled

Audience for Online Video-Sharing Sites Has Nearly Doubled

According to a survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project conducted in April 2009, the share of online adults who watch videos on video-sharing sites has nearly doubled since 2006. Fully 62 percent of adult internet users have watched video on these sites, up from just 33 percent who reported this back in December 2006.

Online video has also become a bigger fixture in everyday life, garnering 19 percent of all internet users who use video-sharing sites to watch on a typical day in April 2009. This compares with just 8 percent of internet users reported use of the sites on a typical day in 2006.

The report is based on the findings of a daily tracking survey on Americans’ use of the Internet. The results are based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research International between March 26 to April 19, 2009, among a sample of 2,253 adults, 18 and older.

According to Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist at the Pew Research Center, online video watching among young adults is near-universal; 89 percent of internet users ages 18-29 now say they watch content on video sharing sites, and 36 percent do so on a typical day.

While much of the content on video sharing sites is user-generated, there is also a growing archive of professional content available through YouTube and newer network-sponsored video portals like Hulu. Efforts to lure viewers to these portals appear to be paying off, as 35 percent of internet users now say they have viewed a television show or movie online. By comparison, just 16 percent of internet users said they had watched or downloaded movies or TV shows when asked a similar question in 2007.

I know, I know, I’ve just written a book entitled, “YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day.” But just because I’m biased doesn’t mean I’m wrong.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project found that the use of video sharing sites currently outranks many other headline-grabbing internet pastimes among American adults. For example, the 62 percent of adult internet users have watched a video on online video-sharing sites like YouTube is greater than the 46 percent of adult internet users are active on social networking sites, or the 11 percent who use status updating sites like Twitter.

So, think about that as you consider which sessions to attend at SES San Jose 2009. You can attend The Next Wave for Online Video, Extreme Makeover: Live Twitter & Blogging Clinic, or both sessions.

Or, you can attend the Social Media & Video Strategies Forum, the Local Search Summit, or both events.

Based on the latest data from the Pew Research Center, online video-sharing sites are among the topics that you’ll want to be able to discuss intelligently. And if you really want to master this subject, check out the YouTube and Video Marketing Workshop on Friday, August 14.

Or, you could sign up for one of the other training workshops. I know all of the other instructors: Shari Thurow of Omni Marketing Interactive, Jennifer Evans Laycock of SiteLogic, Bill Hunt of Back Azimuth Consulting, Amanda Watlington of Searching for Profit, and Cindy Krum of Rank-Mobile, LLC. There are a lot of topics that will be on the test.