Fifty-two percent of US adults, and 69% of US adult internet users, have used the internet to watch or download video, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Entertainment, Info Both Popular
Between 2007 and 2009, there were dramatic increases in the number of Americans who watched the following kinds of videos online:
- Comedy or humorous videos, which rose in viewership from 31% to 50% of adult internet users.
- Educational videos, which rose in viewership from 22% to 38% of adult internet users.
- Movies or television show videos, which rose in viewership from 16% to 32% of adult internet users.
- Political videos, which rose in viewership from 15% to 30% of adult internet users.
Videos Uploaded to SocNets
More than half of video uploaders (52%) post their videos on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. A similar percentage (49%) post videos to video-sharing sites like YouTube and Google Video.
No other type of site even came close to the popularity of social networks and video-sharing sites for uploading videos. “Other” sites were the next-most popular, with 14% of video uploaders posting videos to sites in this catch-all category. Blogs were only used by 10% of uploaders, suggesting social networks and video-sharing sites may be replacing the personal data-sharing function of blogs for many adult internet users.
Other Findings
- 8% of online video consumers (5% of all adult internet users) have connected their computer to their TV so they can watch online video on a TV screen.
- 10% of online video consumers (7% of all adult internet users) have paid to watch or download a video.
- 14% of adult internet users have uploaded a video to the internet so others can watch or download it.
- Women are as likely as men to upload and share videos.
Americans Watch 30.3B Online Videos in April ’10
About 178 million US internet users watched 30.3 billion online videos during April 2010, according to comScore Video Metrix data. comScore research also indicates 83.5% of the total US internet audience viewed online video and the duration of the average online video was 4.4 minutes. Google Sites ranked as the top video property with 13.1 billion videos, representing 43.2% of all videos viewed online. YouTube accounted for the vast majority of videos viewed at the property.
About the Data: These figures were gathered in a survey of 763 internet-using adults between June 18 and June 21, 2009.
