Demographic Behaviour - Video Sharing Sites

Despite the increase in video-sharing, new surveys have shown that many adults have mixed feelings about how their video is shared on the free video sharing websites. While 31% of uploaders say they “always” place restrictions on who can access their videos, 50% say they “never” restrict access. The remaining 19% fall somewhere in the middle. And while there is almost universal appreciation for the ease with which video sharing sites allow uploaders to share video with family and friends, a considerable number (35%) also feel they should be more careful about what they post.”So while video-sharing is clearly trending upward, we find that many adults are insecure about posting video online.”

“Seven in ten adult internet users (69%) have used the internet to watch or download video. That represents 52% of all adults in the United States. Driven by the popularity of online video among 18-29 year-olds, there have been dramatic increases since 2007 in the number of American adults watching. Here are the numbers:

• Comedy or humorous videos, rising in viewership from 31% of adult internet users in 2007 to 50% of adult internet users in the current survey.
• Educational videos, rising in viewership from 22% to 38% of adult internet users.
• Movies or TV show videos, rising in viewership from 16% to 32% of adult internet users.
• Political videos, rising in viewership from 15% to 30% of adult internet users

Changing Approaches Of Video Sharing Sites

Amateur and personal video is catching on again and competition is heating up between top companies as the Internet draws more people to share their videos online.

One such service, YouTube, is approaching its year anniversary as a consumer media company that allows uploading, tagging and sharing of personal video clips.

The company reports more than 6 million videos served up daily and active members who number into the hundreds of thousands on its site which allows free browsing, embedded codes on other sites, secure showings, social networks and playlists.

YouTube, founded in February 2005, competes with similar sites like DropShots.com for the growing number of amateur video enthusiast though they boast slightly different strengths.

DropShots draws people sharing video with family and friends -- as opposed to the world at large. It is different in that it is one of the most popular non commercial sites.

Most video sharing sites feature commercial material today. Others trying to grab a slice of the market, which was virtually non-existent a few years ago, are: Vimeo, Sharkle, Grouper and VideoEgg. Twitter is the latest service, after social networking sites, Facebook and Orkut to give into video sharing options. Commercial options are visible in a big way on all these sites, unlike a few years ago.

How Twitter Helps Real Time Video Updates

The changing face of video sharing is affecting more and more fields. Recently there was fire that broke out near Utah at an army machine gun facility. The fire burned over 20 thousand acres, and they evacuated may be 1,700 homes. It lit up the Utah skyline. You could see the fire from everywhere, but you couldn’t see local television news coverage of what was happening. So people were taking videos with their cell phones, and were attaching that video to their tweets. Then the local news stations were actually picking up people’s twitter feeds and using those videos as part of the community updates (or visual updates).

A year ago you wouldn’t have gone to twitter for the real time updates. Before this, you would have had to have gone to a local news station or maybe to Google itself and try and search for data that was probably several hours old. But now with the new twitter, you get real time video that is both very interesting and timely. You get multiple videos in real time from different local perspectives – local videos coming in all over twitter, different fires, different houses burning, and evacuation of animals – all kinds of things that were happening.

Video Listings In Real Time Search Results

Search engines are connecting video as a highly ranking component for organic search results, and often video is a very ‘real time’ search result – which is what the search engines value greatly.

Video in search results is often of live events, a recent string of events, or recently recorded events – so it’s started to contribute to quick results in improving search engine rankings particularly as it pertains to Google (which is two-thirds of the search market today). So if you’re able to post the video along with your tweet, then Google is also showing a liking for tweets as a potential search as well. So with video and twitter, you’re kind of ‘doubling down’ on your visibility in the search engines with twitter video – with real time update through the tweet, as well as real time content through video. People who tweet are simply pulling in things that are hyper-recent (which is what Google and other search engines want); they’re not pulling in things that are old.”

No, with the new twitter, video will soon replace words. It is a boon to people using rich content like video - it’s easier for people to view and share. For marketers, it’s going to make using video better for getting their message across.

Online Video Is The New Television

Comedy video is now the most popular type of online video, supplanting news video which topped the list in 2007. Viewership for several other types of online video has grown significantly over the past two years, most notably educational videos, TV shows and movies, and political videos.

Despite an increase in video sharing, the survey reveals that many adults have mixed feelings about how broadly they want to share their own creations, who they think is watching, how they think their video might be used, and how careful they feel they need to be about what they post. So while video sharing is clearly trending upward, we find that many adults are ambivalent about posting videos online.

On the other side of the camera, video creation has now become a notable feature of online life. One in seven adult internet users (14%) have uploaded a video to the internet, almost double the 8% who were uploading video in 2007. Home video is far and away the most popular content posted online, shared by 62% of video uploaders. And uploaders are just as likely to share video on social networking sites like Facebook (52% do this) as they are on more specialized video-sharing sites like YouTube (49% do this).

The Changing Trends of Video Streams

We know that online video consumption continues to show huge growth. According to Nielsen, there were 11 billion video streams watched by 139 million unique users in a single month in the U.S. in 2009 which represents growth of 24.8% and 11.3% respectively compared to the same month during the previous year.

In 2010, it seems that the TV industry in the United States is reaching a tentative consensus about how to bring more premium content online in a manner that does not overly destabilize current business models. By bringing your rights as a cable or satellite television subscriber with you into the online world, you are going to be able to consume more television content online than ever before. There are many unanswered questions, many competing agendas, and lots of ways for this initiative to fail to live up to its full potential, but it is an interesting and important step toward the future of online video.

Live video streaming is another important trend. Specific events with specialized audiences hog this space. Typically the largest user base for these services seem to be live streams that typically have less than 1000 viewers. Of course there are certain mega events that command a larger audience.

Mobile video seems to be another big story, especially in Asia where superfast mobile internet and services that exploit this facility are setting a new trend. A small portion of the video sharing pie does go to sites that cater to more specialized needs such as that of companies that need to put up large product description videos.

The latest trend analysis shows that bloggers who embed YouTube links tend to be male and young. The most active group of YouTube users is between 25 and 35 years old and bloggers who embed YouTube videos are mostly male (58%).

Video Sharing - Should You Always Go By The Popular Option?

The truth is that YouTube is not as great a video sharing interface as Vimeo, yet everybody knows who has more viewers. But Vimeo has its set of loyal users. So do a lot of smaller sharing sites. Users have begun to realize that there is more to the experience than the most popular option can offer. A lot of new video sharing sites offer specific features. Some have easier downloads while some have better video quality or sharing options. Some sites come with the full option of editing your video right there and sharing it with the world.

Even when it comes to visibility, YouTube may not be the best option because it has many times the users of most other sites. This might even work out as a disadvantage. Your video can easily be lost among the millions being uploaded every minute. If you have a film school project you want to share with other interested users, you might want to choose a site that offers good video quality and is frequented by people with similar interest. Here you know your ground and you will be able to promote your video better and get your results. There are a lot of options. Make sure you choose the one that fits your requirements rather than following the crowd. It might be rewarding to put in some originality.