Online video’s popularity is going to skyrocket, and there’s no reason for anyone to miss out on the profits, according to a new report. ABI Research predicts that, in the year 2013, over one billion people will watch some sort of clip online.
Various estimates put the world’s population at around seven billion in 2013, so if no nuclear wars take place and ABI’s forecasts are correct, at least 14 percent of all people will squint at moving images on computer screens. That’s impressive.
ABI Research
Cesar Bachelet, a senior analyst at ABI, states, “A wide variety of actors aim to gain a share of this fast-growing market: not only content owners such as the BBC and NBC Universal, and Internet portals such as AOL and Yahoo!, but also a range of new entrants including user-generated content sites such as YouTube and Dailymotion, broadband video sites such as CinemaNow and Lovefilm, and Internet TV providers such as Apple and Zattoo.”
After all, while 14 percent of the folks covering the globe look at videos, they’ll also be able to see ads. So however “settled” things appear, expect new players to continue entering the market, seeking at least a small portion of an increasingly huge cash flow.
ABI suggests that traditional pay-TV operators also try to adapt to this trend, and not waste time and money fighting it.
