Leading global online video properties 2015, by unique viewers
Online video properties – additional information
One of the most popular activities online is video consumption. Online videos have different formats, and can be accessed from any device connected to the internet. Google Sites and Facebook are by far, the two main online video properties, considering the other service providers do not pass the 400 million mark in regards of unique viewers.
Driven by video viewing on YouTube, Google Sites is ranked the most popular online video property, as they receive nearly 925 million unique monthly viewers as of December 2015. YouTube was launched in 2005, and bought by Google in late 2006. YouTube is known for user-generated videos, such as video blogging, tutorials or original series, even though some media organizations – VEVO, Hulu, for instance – also offer video content in the platform. YouTube had over one billion users worldwide as of 2015. About 81 percent of global internet users had visited YouTube during the first quarter of 2015, while 28 percent of YouTube active users access the video platform at least once per day as of the third quarter of 2015.
Facebook has about 617 million unique monthly viewers as of December 2015, which places the platform as the second most popular online video property worldwide and YouTube’s closest competitor. Watching a video is the second most popular activity amongst Facebook users worldwide, as 50 percent of the global active users use the platform for this purpose. Facebook users are not only watching video on the platform, but they also show a preference for native Facebook videos posts, that is, videos directed uploaded to the social network. Overall, 65 percent of the videos shared on Facebook were uploaded straight to the platform, while video links shared from YouTube accounted for 24 percent.