Bigger Than You Think: Surprising Statistics About Online Video

We all know that online video is big and growing rapidly. But when you look at some recent statistics, you’ll probably be surprised by just how big video on the Internet really is. And that shows what a powerful marketing tool online video has become.

1. The average U.S. Internet user watches 186 videos per month
That’s an incredible number. 183 million Americans watched a total of 33.9 billion online videos in May 2010 alone. For many people, online video has already turned into one of the most important sources of information and entertainment.
(Source: Comscore Video Metrix)

2. Growing like crazy: Facebook’s video views are up 239% in one year
With almost 500 million users, Facebook is by far the dominant social networking site on the web today. But one part is growing even more quickly than the rest of the site: Videos. Facebook users watched 245 million videos in May, and the growth rate is accelerating as more companies and people upload video to the site.
(Source: Business Insider)

3. More video is uploaded to Youtube in 60 days than all TV networks created in 60 years
Youtube is by far the dominant video platform today, with over 85% of total views. Even more incredible is the amount of video uploaded to this site: Every single minute, 24 hours of new video material are published on Youtube. That’s a total of about 12.6 million hours of video every year.
(Sources: ReelSEO, Youtube)

4. E-commerce sites that use product videos sell up to 45% more
Let’s take shoes as an example -- probably not the type of product that you would expect to do particularly well with online videos. But online retailer Onlineshoes.com says it sees a 45% higher conversion rate for customers who watch videos on its web site. And online shopping king Zappos.com says it sells up to 30% more for products that it shows in videos instead of just static pictures.
(Sources: ReelSEO, Internet Retailer)

5. 19% of small business advertisers already use video -- up from 8% a year earlier
Video is the fastest-growing web site feature, according to a survey of 12,000 growing businesses. And 33% of online retailers plan to add video to their sites in 2010, more than any other website feature.
(Source: WebVisible, Forrester)

So there’s no question that online video is a phenomenon that is growing incredibly fast and is here to stay.

If you want to get started with online video, read our 6 tips to creating marketing videos.

(Picture: Orin Zebest, CC attribution license)