New comScore data shows that the number of videos viewed online moved up 66% in February compared with the same month last year. US internet users viewed over 10 billion videos for the most recent month measured.
The $64,000 question is whether any of the big companies spending substantial sums to host and send these videos over the internet are making a dime. Google has not shown there is any substantial revenue in it. Perhaps that will change when it reports its quarterly earnings.
It would seem more likely that the premium video content from sites like Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Viacom (NYSE: VIA) could bring in significant revenue from commercials. Google’s YouTube video is primarily user-generated and is unlikely to be attractive to marketers.
Based on the comScore numbers below. the investment in video content by major internet and media companies is massive.
Property Videos Share (%) of
(000) Videos
Total Internet 10,089,048 100.0
Google Sites 3,567,202 35.4
Fox Interactive Media 586,236 5.8
Yahoo! Sites 293,120 2.9
Microsoft Sites 293,085 2.9
Viacom Digital 218,011 2.2
Time Warner – Excl. AOL 132,734 1.3
Disney Online 130,609 1.3
AOL LLC 114,853 1.1
Minutes spent watching video also give Google a huge advantage:
Property Unique Viewers Average Minutes
(000) per Viewer
Total Internet 134,739 203.8
Google Sites 81,791 109.4
Fox Interactive Media 55,741 10.9
Yahoo! Sites 37,111 16.6
Microsoft Sites 27,080 18.8
Time Warner – Excl. AOL 21,329 14.6
Viacom Digital 21,280 29.3
AOL LLC 20,970 7.3
Disney Online 13,245 10.3
Douglas A. McIntyre
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