If the line representing online video’s growth were a hill, even a Hummer might have trouble navigating it. According to new Hitwise stats, UK traffic to video sites increased 178 percent between the two most recent Februarys.
UK Top 25 Video Site Usage Graph
YouTube led the way, of course, with a dominance that borders on the ridiculous. Robin Goad writes, “The combined market share of its US and UK properties in February was 69.31% of all UK Internet visits to the custom category. . . . The fourth and fifth most popular search terms in the UK during February were ‘youtube’ and ‘you tube’. . . . YouTube Poland was the 24th most visited video website in the UK last month . . .”
But other sites contributed, too. The BBC iPlayer’s site had a significant share of 5.66 percent, and MySpace TV managed to grab 5.49 percent for itself. Additional names on a top ten list included Dailymotion, Metacafe, Vuze, and Tudou. And Google Video and Google Video UK snuck in to give YouTube some extra support.
Goad summarizes, “A Hitwise custom category of the top 25 video websites in the UK accounted for 2.22% of all UK Internet visits in February 2008, equivalent for one in every 45 Internet visits last month.”
Interest in online videos from both content creators and viewers is sure to continue increasing as time goes by. Advertisers will likely get in on the action in growing numbers, as well.
