Dramatic Growth In Internet Traffic To Video-Sharing Sites

A Pew Internet report released this week says 48% of Internet users have visited video sharing sites such as YouTube, and that the number of users on a typical nearly doubled during the past year.

The report includes results from a national phone survey of 2,054 U.S. adults completed late last year. During the survey, 15% of the participants said they had been to a video-sharing site the day before they were polled, a considerable increase from the 8% in 2006.

The survey indicated that growth in Internet traffic to video sites is linked at least in part to the adoption of broadband connections (54% of adults now have high-speed connections) and to the popularity of these sites among men, adults under 30 and college graduates. Additionally, significant growth was seen among women, high school graduates, and adults aged 30 to 49.

The report said other factors are also at play in fueling the growth of video site usage. These include the increase in the number of videos on sites such as YouTube, and the growing number of people who post their videos online.

“Everything connected to online video doubled last year,” said James McQuivey, an industry analyst at Forrester, in a NewsFactor Network article. The rise in popularity is “far from over,” he added.

“In 2008, more content owners will respond by making their content even more available online than in 2007,” said McQuivey. New video sites, such as Hulu.com, will “share its primetime and classic television shows with major sites like Yahoo, AOL, and MSN.” McQuivey predicted initiatives such as these would further increase the amount of time people spend watching video online.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project report can be viewed at http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/Pew_Videosharing_memo_Jan08.pdf